Our capricious March

March remains a finicky month, tottering between winter's cold depths and spring's warm hope.

Some years, Mother Nature just can't decide. A March cold snap during the 1960s dropped Iowa's temperatures to 35 degrees below zero while a blizzard dumped 48 inches of snow, leaving the cornfields' cut stalks and snow fences buried. But a March 1987 heat wave put most of us in shorts and swimsuits as the mercury rose into the 80s.

While a few days almost every March tend to veer toward those extremes, mostly it all just averages out. More often than not, the month is certain to serve up a Western wind with rain, that either melts the holdout snow or waters the grass for a greener April. And gradually songbirds return from their Southern homes, deciding Iowa is a good place for them to raise children, too.

For most of us, though, the days of March ring a bit like those bowls of porridge Goldilocks fussed over - though we're more likely to find helpings that are too cold rather than too hot or just right. But day by day, even with the interloping ice storm or snowfall, the bowl warms just a little more.

(originally published March 1, 2005)