the weather in Minneapolis

This March month was unusually cool for Minneapolis, with temperatures staying below 10C/50F the whole time. Still, the recent barely-above-freezing days allowed the accumulation from our 8th snowiest season to melt, which broke the streak of more than 2.5cm/1-inch snow cover. We had that much snow on the ground for 116 consecutive days, ranking as our 9th-longest snowy winter.

I took this photo of my back yard a few minutes ago. So much snow has melted recently that both Minneapolis and St. Paul have finally rescinded parking restrictions this week. Vehicles on my street are still unlevel, parked on a small snow bank under the curb-side wheels. But even this much melting is a welcome improvement. As you can tell from my photo, though, it still isn't really gone yet. But the nights are getting dark again, thanks to all that reflective cover finally disappearing. The ground is absorbing night light again, and it's a bit easier to sleep with darkness returning.

Snow is predicted for tonight and tomorrow morning, but I think most of it will fall after midnight, so I'm not counting it for our March totals now.

I haven't put seeds into flats yet. I think I may do it tomorrow finally. I noticed this week that my cherry tree had some buds on it. I hope they didn't start during that false spring in February when some other plants were budding. The seasons here do change... eventually. I hope that our sequence this year wasn't shifted too much to get a good fruit crop.