Spring arrives on Sunday, March 20 in the earliest hour of the morning, at 12:30 a.m. The arrival of spring has already been in the wind, the temperature, the sky and wrapped around the early sprouts. Winter was relatively mild, though the Vineyard received more than its average amount of snowfall of 23.6 inches. Snowfall total for January and February was 28 inches.

With a fresh memory of the winter of 2014 to 2015, it is easy to think this past winter was mild. There was both mild and bitterly cold weather though clearly each incident was short term. The coldest temperature of last winter came on the morning of February 6 with a low of minus six degrees at the National Weather Service Cooperative Station in Edgartown. The thermometer dropped again the next morning with a minus 1.

Moon and Jupiter

On Monday night, the gibbous moon (almost full) appears near the bright planet Jupiter in the zodiacal constellation Leo. The two are close, an attractive sight, throughout the evening. By midnight, the two are high in the sky, and they set in the west by Tuesday morning at sunrise.

Full Moon, the Mud Moon, is Tuesday. The moon is in the zodiacal constellation Virgo and rises in the southeast at sunset.