Many Area Residents Are Happy To Kick Winter To The Curb
By John Ostapkovich and Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Spring begins today at 12:57 p.m. While that's no guarantee we'll get no more snow, it does at least mean winter is behind us.
This was the winter of our discontent with way too much snow shoveling and, with some heavier accumulations, snow blowing to suit many of us. This is been our second snowiest winter at 67.6 inches, a good 11 inches short of the record back in 2009-10.
Even so, this winter stands out to CBS 3 Meteorologist Kate Bilo.
"What I think is the most remarkable thing about getting to that silver medal status this winter is that we did it without any huge storms. The biggest storm we had was 13 1/2 inches which, when you compare to the blizzard of '96, you compare it to the storm in February 2010, really not that big of a storm," she said. "It was just the number of storms. Fourteen storms produced an inch or more in Philadelphia."
Listen to more of John's interview with Kate in the player below.
Podcast
As to why, Bilo says we had had a couple of low snow winters the past few years. This time, cold met moisture and away we went.
Many people are more than happy to welcome the change of seasons.
"Spring needs to act like it! Spring, don't let Winter blow you around," one man said. "I want the leaves to come back on the trees and the warm weather to come back!"
What was the toughest thing to deal with from this winter?
"All the snow!"
"Driving with potholes."
So what's everybody looking forward to?
"Just the warm weather... consistently! Not just warm today and then cold again, but then consistently being warm every single day!"
"T-shirts and shorts! Looking forward to it!"
