Cartoon: Spring in Philly has many moods

Ready for the first day of spring 2021, which officially begins at 5:37 a.m. Saturday morning?

After a snowy winter, the vernal equinox is finally here. Spring in Philadelphia is usually a roller coaster of cold snaps, frigid blasts of wind, and bouts of pre-summer heat. And potholes, an annual nuisance to residents across the city. So far this year, Philadelphia has already filled 14,775 potholes, which seems like a lot, but could honestly just be one block of Sansom Street.

My cartooning buddy Tom Stiglich penned a fun toon recently about the city’s pothole problem:

According to the U.S. government’s Climate Prediction Center, April to June is expected to be “warmer-than-normal,” with above-normal temperatures forecast in and around Philadelphia. It’s also expected to be a wet summer, a notable change considering a recent dry spell that lasted more than two weeks.

Personally, I’m looking forward to this year’s Worm Moon — the first full moon in March — which this year will also be the first supermoon of 2021. It’s also known as the Paschal Full Moon, since it happens to be the first full moon of spring. In fact, Easter always takes place the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon, which is why this year it falls on April 4.

So why do we call it spring anyway? According to Mental Floss, what we once called Lent began to be known as “springing time” around the 14th century — a reference to plants and flowers springing from the ground. The next century, they shortened it to “spring time,” and their lazy grandchildren got ride of “time” around 100 years later.

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