Winter has ended — according to meteorologists. While we may yet have some cold days ahead of us, we’ve survived until March. That means we’ve seen the end of meteorological winter, which begins Dec.

After the late January snowstorm dumped up to 18 inches on parts of the Highlands, Highway and Water Department staff in Beacon worked 993 hours of overtime clearing snow from roads, sidewalks and parking lots.

Snowy winters actually help ticks survive. "Tick season will hit fast and hit hard," said the director of East Stroudsburg University's tick lab.

If Northern Hemisphere snow cover keeps reaching the same general highs and lows year after year, that reinforces climate stability. If snow cover instead changes over the long term, the change nudges global climate. Snow loss amplifies warming, but it operates alongside other major drivers such as land-use changes and greenhouse gas emissions.

With a little over three weeks to go, the start of spring draws near. More signs of it are starting to be seen in the weather forecast as well. Saturday looks likely to be not just our warmest day in nearly two months,