Northern magnolia with snow, 17 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

21 March 2026

The weather has been a yo-yo this week with a sunny high of 68°F on Sunday and 60°F on Monday. Then it started snowing hard at 6:00pm Monday. Three inches covered the City while at Pittsburgh’s weather station the snow was twice as deep. It set a new record for a yo-yo day.

After the snow stopped, ragged clouds raced across the sky at 10:30pm, 16 March.

After the snow stopped, ragged clouds, 16 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

The next morning the sky was clear (see the meteor blog) and the snow began to melt. Dippy still wore a snow cloak at 10:50am.

Snow on Dippy, 17 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

Damage to northern magnolia flowers (photo at top) and red maples became evident.

Damaged red maple flowers in Pittsburgh, 17 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

But soon the sun had warmed the ground so much that steam rose from the mulch outside Carnegie Museum.

Two days later it was again cold in the morning when four of us walked the Muddy Creek Trail at Moraine State Park. By noon it warmed up considerably. We found skunk cabbage and coltsfoot poking up through the snow.

Skunk cabbage at Muddy Creek Trail, Moraine State Park, 19 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

Coltsfoot beginning to open at Moraine State Park, 19 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

And we found out that it is officially Mud Season! (Melissa’s beagle, Henry, is keeping his paws clean.)

Mud Season at Moraine State Park. Henry waits for us to continue walking, 19 March 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. This week we saw lamb, lion, lamb.