One of those March days...

The Wedding Tree, Hampshire College Campus, Amherst MA - Photo by Jim Patten

𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅: 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒆.

                                                        - Charles Dickens, 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠

Before the flowers and (mostly) after the snow, early spring in the Valley can be challenging to capture. Luckily for us, James (Jim) Patten saw the potential in this starkly beautiful scene, which is the featured photo for March in the 2025 Head in the Clouds Amherst wall calendar. Remembering that day, Jim commented, “Walking to the Red Barn with my manager for a celebration…. It was Cold, Crisp and Sunny.” In other words, it was a lot like today outside.

Beyond the field in the foreground is the Wedding Tree on the Hampshire College campus, with the Holyoke Range in the distance. And above it all, white puffy cumulus clouds. Observant cloudspotters will also notice less common lenticular clouds (stacked spirals) to the far left of the photo.

Lenticular clouds, which have been mistaken for flying saucers, are usually caused by a moist airstream flowing over raised ground, such as a hill or mountain peak. When the airstream contains layers of moist air separated by drier air, a stacked formation can appear, as seen here.

Spring may be in the air at the moment, but March can also whip us back into deep winter – after all, the “Blizzard of 1888” (one for the record-books in Amherst and most of New England), struck on March 11. It snowed for two nights and a day, leaving snowdrifts as high as 50 feet deep!