By LISA CURRIE

By LISA CURRIE

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

Snow, rain sleet and cold temperatures: They’re all part of the weather forecast for the next couple of days — a firm reminder spring has not yet arrived.

“After all these weeks of cold weather, our cycles start to tell us it’s time for warm weather,” local weather watcher Dennis Wingfield of Sperryville said, adding that even though our “cycles” tell us it’s spring, the thermometer tells us different.

“The first 10 days of March are running about the same as last year,” he said. Last year was about average.

And while March temperatures keep the mercury in its usual chilly spot, temperatures in February were high.

“February 1991 was 4l/> degrees colder than last February, the second warmest on record,” Mr. Wingfield said, adding February 1990 was 8V4 degrees warmer than February 1989.

As last year, this year’s warm days of February gave Mother Nature a gentle push forward, causing peach and other early fruit to show just a bit too much blossom for this time of year.

“Already, some peaches are beginning to show some pink,” Extension Agent Tommy Williams said, adding that many fruit trees in the area are about “two weeks ahead of schedule.”

The blast of arctic air the county has felt since the weekend is just what the orchard keeper has ordered.

“We need to stay cold about another two weeks,” Mr. Williams said, adding that the cold won’t plants, just slow growth, while warmth will force buds to mature that will probally be harmed by later cold.

“Peaches are our concern now,” he said, referring to last year and the sudden warmth in mid-March that opened blooms that later frosted.

“We lost nearly 90 percent of our crop last year,” Mr. Williams said of peach orchards that run the length and width of Rappahannock County.

And while the first 10 days of March 1991 resemble those of last March, mid-March brings the change.