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Mark Zadworny (right) leads daughters Megan and Zoe and his wife, Karen, down the hill from Marye's Heights after visiting Fredericksburg National Cemetery yesterday. The Zadwornys, who live in Seattle, said they weren't going to let a little rain and snow stop them from sightseeing.
Mary Washington College sophomore Margaret Mazzola strolls through a spring snowfall yesterday morning on her way |
March is supposed to be a mixed-up mess of weather anyway, but who knew one weekend could hold such drastic changes?
"You mean, the way we went from wearing T-shirts and shorts one day to freezing our butts off the next?" asked Angela Graves.
Yeah, something like that.
Graves is the assistant manager of the Meadows Farm garden center on State Route 3, and, like many others, was surprised by the difference a day made.
Saturday called for tank tops and flip-flops. Skies were sunny most of the afternoon, temperatures were in the high 70s and daffodils and forsythia bloomed in full force.
Yesterday called for winter coats and warm socks. Skies were gray and filled with snow showers, temperatures were in the low 30s and heavy, white flakes fell on pink cherry blossoms.
"It was a full 43-degree difference in one day," said Jim Robinson, a Falmouth man who watches the weather as intently as his favorite forecaster, Bob Ryan. "It was incredible."
But not terribly unusual for this time of year, Robinson said. The Fredericksburg area usually gets about 21/2 inches of snow each March, according to the Virginia State Climatology Office. In March 1960, it got a record 21 inches of the white stuff.
That's how things are in the spring. Blasts of arctic air often sweep through the region, mixing with warm air from the South.
What made the weekend weather more dramatic was how quickly things changed.
The shift started Saturday afternoon, when the temperature began to drop about five degrees an hour. Violent thunderstorms moved through the area, and "if you noticed, the sky almost looked tropical at times," Robinson said.
Tornado warnings were issued, and a Florida man said he saw funnel-shaped clouds near Spotsylvania Mall.
Alan Hughes, who used to live in the Fredericksburg area, was headed into the mall about 5:30 p.m. when he saw the first of two thin, vertical clouds. Neither touched down, but both rotated in the sky the way twisters do, he said.
There was a lot of dust and debris swirling between the first and second clouds, and several grains of sand caught Hughes in the eye.
"A lot of people were standing outside, pointing at it, and some others were running inside for cover," Hughes said.
There were reports of tornadoes in Stafford County Saturday, but no damage.
Even with the ominous clouds that formed Saturday, Donna Toombs thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful spring weather. She and her husband run Ken's Tackle Shop off Lafayette Boulevard in Spotsylvania County, and the place was abuzz Saturday with people buying bait and bragging about their catches.
Yesterday "they were just walking around, looking all sad, like it was wintertime again," she said.
She was shocked by the change in temperature, but said she probably shouldn't have been. "You know what Virginia weather is like," she said.
At the Lake Anna Market, cashier Jim Watkins was more unhappy with the weather that blew in yesterday than surprised by it.
"None of us like it," he said. "We're ready for spring."
But Dale Garner, who lives near Lake Anna State Park, was grateful for any precipitation the ground could get, after watching three years of drought destroy his garden.
"The farmers around here, they're praising it," he said. "It's a blessing to have this much rain and snow. As long as it stops within the next few weeks, we'll be all right."
Since December, 43.7 inches of snow have fallen in the Fredericksburg area. The average is 11.6 inches.
Forecasters called for 3 to 6 inches of snow here yesterday.
North and west of Fredericksburg--in places like Sumerduck and Lake Wilderness--several inches of snow accumulated.
But closer to the city, it melted as soon it hit the warm ground.
Operators at the Fredericksburg Wastewater Treatment Plant recorded a half-inch of rain, but couldn't get an accurate reading of the snow.
They had removed the instrument that measures it, operator Chris Greene said.
"We weren't expecting any more snow."
