Photo of the Day: Goodbye to Winter in Nyack, NY

Earlier this week, a local TV weather forecaster explained the difference between astronomical spring (based on the orbiting cycle that produces the vernal equinox on March 20) and meteorological spring (based on annual temperature cycles). The two, she noted, did not coincide.

But this afternoon, throngs of walkers in Nyack, NY, considered the two forms of spring in alignment.

At Memorial Park, in this photo I took, people were enjoying the sunshine and the temperatures hovering near 60 degrees. When not strolling with parents or congregating with friends their age, teens were using the skateboard park.

Only 24 hours before, the wind-chill factor plunged precipitously, leading me to cut short my daily walk near where I live in northern New Jersey. That seemed like the last vestige of winter until I came across these large mounds of snow in Memorial Park.

In my own driveway, the last bit of snow from the roughly 30 inches of snow dumped this winter had melted more than a week ago. I wondered how high the snowbanks in this park must have been piled before the intermittent warmer temperatures and rain of the last three weeks had begun to have an effect.

As I looked beyond the snowbanks to the Mario Cuomo Bridge across the Hudson, I felt like waving the winter of 2020-21 goodbye, with a big smile and not the slightest nostalgia.