Notre Météo: Printemps Arrive!

Printemps arrive! Above you see a spectacular yellow mimosa tree in bloom, as I see it on my daily run through the vineyards. These mimosa arbres are sprinkled throughout our village. The photos I post today show that spring has arrived in St Roman. Some of the plants were discovered on our hour-long Sunday stroll with our voisins. It was about 60 degrees at noon yesterday and we wore no vests, sweaters or jackets, just shirtsleeves.

I am thrilled to see signs of spring popping out all around. Winter is my least favorite season and I am always relieved when it is over. Our météo indicates that we have more days in the 60's predicted this week and next. We may have rain in the next several days, but that's ok; it's great for the crops.

Many folks in the village say that this warmer weather has arrived too early; we have just completed the third week of February and according to the calendar, we still have three full weeks of winter. I've looked at our 15 day forecast and there might be legitimate cause for concern. As of yesterday, AccuWeather was predicting that a cold front would move into the area around March 9th and that our lows would drop below freezing, possibly for several days.

Nonetheless, I can't help but admire all the beautiful blossoms. Armando tells me that the white blossoming trees are amandiers, while the pink blossoming trees are either abricotiers or pêcher. The dark pink blossoms of the cerisier come later, likely arriving the end of March or beginning of April. He says that when the fruit is ready, we are free to stroll and pick what we want to eat. Now I am really eager for spring!

I've just re-checked the forecast and the freezing temps are gone, at least for now. Hopefully, the highs and lows the second week of March will be in the 40's and not below. Yes, those highs will be 20 degrees cooler than yesterday, but not cold enough to destroy the delicate blooms of our arbres aux noix et arbres fruitiers.

Needless to say, should the freeze actually arrive, many of the blossoming trees would suffer damage and that might mean a loss of our almond, peach and apricot crops. Let's be optimistic that a late freeze does not happen this year.

Our marie has determined the time is right to return water to our midieval four-headed fountain. Surely this indicates that any freeze yet to come will be of no consequence. I hope so.

You can always have a look at the St Roman de Malegarde weather forecast, weather maps, temperature charts and other interesting weather information by clicking on the AccuWeather icon I have posted in the right column of this blog. On the forecast pages, you have the option of viewing the temperatures in Celsius (click the red "Metric" button at the top to the right of the date) or in Fahrenheit (click the blue "English" button at the top to the right of the date.)

Happy Spring Everyone!