Goodbye winter - welcome spring

pundito (65)in #weather • 8 years ago (edited)

Hello steemians,

This winter was some kind of different from others.

Normally in our region (The Netherlands close to the coast), the coldest winter period is between the beginning of January and middle of February.
Last 112 years we had only 8 times white christmas. That's an average of every 14 years. The last time was only 7 years ago in 2010.
This gives you an idea of how moderate the zone is I'm living in.

pic source

So, what made winter 2017/2018 different from other winters?

It started with (for our region) a lot of snow on 11th of December 2017.
This was really early snow for our region. The officials warned in the morning already to stay at home if possible. A look outside at that moment told me they exaggerate again.
Some hours later I had to admit that they did not exaggerate this time and I went home from work early.

pic source: my mobile phone

The other December days were warm with even the warmest 31st of December ever measured (13.7 degrees C).
Also, January 2018 was relatively warm with 24th of January the warmest day (14.4 degrees C) when one would expect frost.
In February 2018 winter still did not arrive as one could expect but suddenly - at the end of February - temperatures dropped.
Officially the meteorological beginning of spring was 1st of March 2018 which actually was in the middle of our second winter period during that season.
From 25th of February until 3rd of March temperatures did not rise above 0 degrees C anymore. With a strong eastern wind, it felt like -17 to -19 degrees.

So this was our meteorological beginning of spring 2018: felt like -18 degrees C

We actually had two more or less short periods of winter weather. One before one would expect it and the other after one would expect it.
Within two days temperatures rose from -8 to +11 degrees Celsius with almost 20 degrees and yesterday everything that was left of the winter was some quickly melting ice on the lakes. The photo is taken while walking the dogs yesterday 4th of March 2018.