"It kind of feels like spring in here, outside, not so much," said Cliff Laura Kalfs, the Nursery Manager at Cliff Avenue Greenhouse and Garden.
It's the first day of spring, but people are still bundled up fighting the cold. The cool temps and chilling winds are making it a very cold start to the season. Especially when you think about what it was like on the first day of spring last year—it was 75 and sunny on March 20th last year after a very mild winter.
This year, the sun was shining, but the wind and cold made hat and gloves a necessity on the first day of spring, making everyone reminisce about last year.
"Last year we were in tank tops and shorts probably two weeks ago actually getting things set up and planted and everything," said Kalfs.
Everyone enjoyed the unusually warmer temperatures last spring, especially the businesses that deal in the outdoors.
"Last year was one of our earliest openings ever and the weather was great once we opened. We opened about the eighth of March and had some wonderful days; it was 74 here last year on the first day of spring and so we'll be 50 degrees off of that this year," said Tom Jansa, the President of Dakota Golf Management.
"Usually March is when we start to notice a pick up in our business, last year obviously we were much busier sooner, which was nice," said Kalfs.
After years of doing business in South Dakota, these managers know springs like this year are very common.
"Last year was very abnormal, it was really nice to have that early, really nice warm weather," said Kalfs.
"Nice springs are pretty unusual…to look at the March or April or May period and have it all be kind of glorious like it was last year is one out of ten at the most," said Jansa.
Even so, those of us who've struggled through the cold all winter are dying to put away our hats and gloves and dive into the joys of a warmer spring.
"Everyone gets antsy those first couple warm days we have where the sun is out and you can walk around with your T-shirt or a light jacket," said Kalfs.
"The phone calls usually start about the first of March, regardless, even if there's snow on the ground they're kind of chomping at the bit to go," said Jansa.
While we'd like to believe spring has truly arrived this year, it will be several weeks before we can even think about digging into the ground to plant spring flowers or tee off—especially because the ground is still frozen solid.
