Day 4.081: April - fooling?

On Wednesday night the weather forecast on the TV mentioned the chance of a 'winter storm' for Friday so I looked up the area forecast discussion but it was still fairly uncertain so I assumed that it would not be too serious.

On Thursday we woke to this:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
342 AM EDT THU MAR 31 2011
..WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS
EVENING TO 1 AM EDT SATURDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ALBANY HAS
ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR SNOW...WHICH
IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 1 AM EDT
SATURDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER
IN EFFECT.

* HAZARD TYPES...MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW WITH
POOR VISIBILITIES.

* ACCUMULATIONS...6 TO 12 INCHES OF SNOW...WITH

OVER 1 FOOT EXPECTED ACROSS THE HIGHER TERRAIN

EAST OF THE HUDSON RIVER.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS
OF SNOW...SLEET...AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR
OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS
WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

The stars (and the weather models) were aligning to give us a very out-like-a-lion end to March.

Later the warning was cancelled, the snow totals downgraded and in the end we had a covering (barely) before the precipitation changed over to rain.

It was every bit the spring day after all.