Never mind the drought for now. April arrives Saturday, and with it the most beautiful and delightful month of the year in Maryland, for my money. I used to live in New Hampshire, where April is Mud Season. Enough said.

Here, trees and flowers blossom, the azaleas explode everywhere. Lawns green up and the reassuring hum of lawnmowers returns to the neighborhoods. And temperatures rise, too, bringing neighbors together over the backyard fence, and drawing friends and cafe tables out onto the sidewalk, at last.

The fourth month of the year also quiets the furnace, without demanding that we switch on the air conditioner. Yet. Enjoy the month's typically low utility bills, because in July we'll all be clobbered by BGE, no matter how the legislature finally decides to meddle.

But I digress. In April, average high temperatures in Baltimore rise through the 60s, from 60 to 69 degrees by month's end. The overnight lows shake free of the 30s, and rise to 47 degrees by May 1. But it's still a transitional month. The extremes in April can be quite, well, extreme. Record highs for the month soar into the 90s. The hottest April day on record for Baltimore is 94 degrees, a mark reached four times - most recently on April 23 and 25 during a heat wave in 1960.

And April can still sting. Record lows are mostly in the 20s and 30s. But the all-time slap-in-the-face cold snap was on April 1, 1923, when the mercury sank to 15 degrees.

The average precipitation in April, in Baltimore, is 3 inches. But it doesn't always fall as rain. The heaviest snowfall on record for Baltimore in April was the April Fools Day storm in 1924, which surprised the city with 9.4 inches. (What IS it about April 1?) Measurable snow has fallen on 10 dates in April. The latest was a tenth of an inch measured on April 28, 1898.

Here's how the national Weather Service remembers the April Fools Day storm:

"This April Fools Day Storm produced the largest recorded April snowfall for Baltimore. A nor'easter brought 3 to 10 inches of snow to central Maryland. Westminister, Frederick and Freeland received 10 inches of snow, Baltimore 9.5 inches, College Park 9 inches, Aberdeen 8 inches, and Chesapeake City 8 inches. Princess Anne recorded 3 inches of sleet and thunderstorms struck areas on the Eastern Shore. A trace of snow fell on May 9, 1923. The latest seasonal measured snowfall was 0.1 inch on April 28, 1898. On April 9, 1884, 8 inches of snow fell in Baltimore marking the latest significant snow for a season."

Easter falls on April 16 this year - the first Sunday following the first full moon (April 13) after the Vernal Equinox (March 20).  That full moon in April is known as the Grass or Egg Moon.