March Enters Like A Polar, Snow Lion

While the opening weekend of March did ease in lamb-like, the March lion has now roared in with snow and polar temperatures and seems inclined to stick around for awhile.  0.7 degrees here this morning, far and away the coldest March temperature I can ever remember; the teens are rare for central Va. in March, but single (no) digit temps are pretty crazy.  After what the majority of the US has experienced for the 2013/14 cold season it really comes as no surprise although it is still a shock. Jonquils should be close to blooming!  March brought 3 snows to Va. last year so... there may be more as early as Thursday/Friday. With much of the US snow covered, the Great Lakes 90% frozen, the cold has plenty of reinforcement; it's going to be a late spring but if trends hold on this rapidly warming planet when we get tilted a little farther toward the nearby star the summer will be toasty.  (Not sure I'll be longing for snow then, but we'll see - and it's not like we have a choice, as I have mentioned before in this space; the Earth is in charge!!)
Cold temps make for brilliant night skies and last night was spectacular. Mars is deep red and dominant from about 10pm on, next to now, much noticeably dimmer, Spica. As we catch up with the red world (opposition is April 8) it moves west (retrogrades) in Virgo to be above instead of east of Alpha Virgo, Spica. Saturn, one constellation east of Mars in Libra is dimmer than Mars but still brighter than anything nearby and a lovely golden hue. Saturn is also moving westward relative to its neighboring stars. The rings of Saturn are tipped nicely for telescope viewing if you get a chance to check it out. Closer to sunrise, Venus flashes up in the east, brighter than anything but the sun or moon and almost casting shadows in our snow covered world.  Jupiter still outshines all the brilliant stars of winter in the evening but has to share the evening sky with the waxing moon for a couple of weeks.  The moon is a crescent this week and barely gibbous when it slides below Jupiter early next week.  Bundle up and check out the winter sky, it was/is gorgeous, today on Earth.
In quake and volcano news: several quakes in the low 6 range around the Pacific rim (shocker!!); Japan, Fiji, Alaska, Nicaragua, Chile over the last few days. Southeast of Japan, a couple of islands continue to erupt, Popo belches, Etna rumbles on but Kelut and Sinabung have calmed down enough in Indonesia that residents are moving back to within 5km of the mountains, warily, I'm sure.
While the ski season continues to rock here in the east (and out west, except California) most of us here in the south would rather see jonquils than snow. 50's and maybe even 60's will return us to more normal late winter conditions by the weekend, so there is hope. The sun is just out for too long these days for the snow and cold to go on for much longer, although not Today On Earth.