The date April 16, 2007 will be long remembered, for two reasons: a record-setting April nor'easter and, unfortunately, a mass murder in Virginia. Both these events, although totally different, have a common thread for many who enjoy the outdoors
The nor'easter that pummeled us and much of the East Coast is the type of weather phenomenon that occurs far more often than we may realize. Ever since weather records have been kept, there have been major snow events recorded during the months of April and May. For example, in 1915 a huge April nor'easter buried the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states under several feet of snow. More recently, major April snowfalls occurred in 1957, '60, '82, '96 and 2003. And just so we don't forget, we also had major snowfalls on May 15, 1976 and again on May 12, 1996.
We don't like to see big snowfall amounts when the calendar says it's spring, but don't confuse the spring equinox with the automatic arrival of spring weather. It usually doesn't happen that way. The year of 1816, for example, came to be known as ''the year without a summer,'' when snow fell in New York State in June and the temperatures plummeted. Farmers lost their crops to sleet and frost throughout New England and as far south as Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson applied for an emergency bank loan after his crop failed. This crazy incident was caused when Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies erupted on April 5, 1815 and clouds of dust and sulfuric acid circled the globe and dimmed the skies of much of the Northern Hemisphere, blocking sunlight and radiational heating.
As bad as this last storm was, it could've been far worse had this April not been unseasonably cold. The below-normal temperatures (mean temperatures for the month are almost 8 degrees below normal) have delayed leaf and other foliage growth so the wet heavy snow had only the bare limbs of non-conifer trees to cling to. Had more leafy areas been present, the damage would've been far worse than it was. If you wonder what could have happened, ask someone who remembers the extensive damage done by the 1976 May snowstorm that decimated our area.
According to the most recent forecast, more spring-like weather is moving into our region this weekend. As the snow melts and leaves behind it saturate earth, the additional water will aid flora in its early growth stages and add to the aquifer. And the trees, limbs and boughs that were brought down in our forests will create new and secure cover habitat for a variety of wildlife. Old-timers used to call spring snow "poor man's manure," meaning it helped flora growth.
Weather, especially in our region east of the Great Lakes, can be both cyclic as well as unpredictable. Some may blame our recent weather – the nor'easter and the June 2006 flood – on global warming, but global warming doesn't work that quickly. These two events, much like other past weather oddities, are merely the results of an unusual series of combined jet stream and pressure gradient events that sometimes occur on the planet we call Earth. Last Monday will also be remembered for the tragedy that struck Virginia Tech University, when a crazed gunman murdered 32 people and wounded 15 others, then committed suicide. The clamor by some in the media to place the blame has covered everything from the dean to the police to the fact the crimes were committed with firearms. But no one seems to want blame the shooter, a mentally disturbed student who was seen as such by fellow students and staff, but no one apparently reported it until afterwards.
