---
season: early-spring
section: old names for storms
---

the line storm. it comes at the equinox, when winter and spring argue over the same ground. the old almanacs expected it, marked it, planned around it.

a late snow in march was called a "poor man's fertilizer." the snow carries nitrogen from the atmosphere and works it into the soil as it melts. the old farmers welcomed it even as they cursed the cold.

the onion snow. a light snow that falls when the wild onions are up. it comes and goes in a day. the ground is too warm to hold it.

wind in early spring is different from winter wind. it is warmer and wetter and it smells like mud. the old word for it was simply "the thaw wind."