Theater of the Absurd Seasons, Revisited

Last night the low temperature where I live was one degree. Tonight in church I learned that it was the coldest first day of spring since 1965. We are going on vacation to a warmer place in a few days, and none too soon.

So I was reminded of this post, which I did one year ago, on March 16, 2012. We had a fabulously warm spring last year, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune published this photo of a young woman in a bikini cavorting in a local lake:

That picture is a bit deceiving–note the ice in the background–but still, the temperature got up to around 75 degrees that day. One year ago, I contrasted the then-current warmth with mid-Marches of the past, like this one taken on exactly the same day, but six years earlier, featuring my three daughters. It looks like mid-winter:

In last March’s post, I wrote of the young woman in the bikini in the picture above:

I’m sure she was a little chillier than she looks–you can see ice in the background–but by now the ice is probably gone, as it is on our pond.

That was on March 16. This morning, one year and four days later, I took this photo of our pond. Not exactly ice-free; in fact, frozen as solid as ever:

People sometimes lose sight of how remarkably variable the weather is. Here in Minnesota, however, we are constantly reminded that just about anything can happen. Especially in March.

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