Weather Talk: Stuck in late winter/early spring

FARGO, N.D. - Late winter/early spring, in most years, is a necessary fifth season here in the Northern Plains. Typically, the snow is at its deepest in early March, and even though the days are longer and the sun higher, lingering snow pack usually negates a lot of these potential warming effects.Underneath the snow, ground frost usually reaches its deepest penetration in March. Even as the snow begins to retreat, the ground remains frozen, creating pools of meltwater which refreeze routinely on chilly mornings or during the inevitable cold snaps.This year, however, what little snow pack we had melted in mid January. We have been in late winter/early spring for two months already. However, our mild winter seems to be morphing into a colder spring. March temperatures have been running about three degrees below average. For as long as this continues, we will be stuck in this purgatorial hybrid of seasons, late winter/early spring.