March vs. March

On March 14th, 2012 the high temperature in Ontonagon (according to weather underground) was 69 degrees.

As I am writing this, on March 14th, 2013, the temperature is 17 degrees.

Ice crystals clinging to the inside of the greenhouse plastic this morning.

We started our first starts for the 2013 season last week. They're inside our house this year because the greenhouse looks like this right now:

Outside view

Inside view. Scott put the plastic on last night.
The melting has only just begun.

The hoophouse into which these starts will be transplanted, in early May, looks like this right now:

Everybody cross your fingers for a thaw.

Just for the sake of comparison, this is what our hoophouse looked like in January:

Oh wow! The hoophouse was three feet taller in January! Wait, no.
There's just three feet less snow on the ground in this picture.

I'm going into my seventh year of farming in the Western U.P. and there is nothing I can say with certainty about the weather here except that it's always full of surprises.