Back from vacation and feeling about like the weather looks outside these windows. Gloomy. I'd rather be on a sunny beach. Oh well. Looks like Wednesday may be our only sunny day this week. The rest is showers, drizzle, fog, and maybe a thunderstorm Tuesday night. That's April for you.

You can blame a high-pressure system over Boston. It's dragging cold, damp air in off the Atlantic. And once that's gone, we'll come under the influence of a storm system that will bring heavy rain to the Ohio Valley, Michigan and upstate New York. Points north of that will see heavy, wet snow. We get showers Thursday and Friday. The weekend - at least from this distance. looks nice - sunny, in the low 60s. That's if the forecast holds up, of course.

Despite some chilly days, March 2007 is winding up on the warm side. Temperatures averaged almost 45 degrees, a degree and a half above the long-term averages. Precipitation was low, just 2.34 inches, or an inch and a half below the norm. For the calendar year to date, we're 2.7 inches in the red. What rain we got in March was mostly skimpy showers. a few tenths, or hundredths of an inch here and there.

April in Baltimore sees average daily high temperatures rise from around 60 degrees to 69 by month's end. The average daily lows climb from 38 degrees to 47. But while the air warms up, and days grow longer, we're still at risk of a surprise snowstorm. We've had snow on Opening Day before, although that won't be an issue this year.

The biggest April snowstorm was on April 1, 1924, when 9.4 inches were recorded downtown. There are 12 other April dates with measurable snow on the record books - the latest on April 28, 1898. The most recent was just last year, on April 7, when 2 tenths of an inch fell at BWI.

The record high for an April day in Baltimore was 94 degrees, matched on four dates - in 1896, 1941 and 1960 (twice). The record low was 15 degrees, on April Fools Day, 1923.

But enough of such thoughts. Let's have some sunshine and balmy, fragrant April breezes. Pear blossoms, azalea riots, steak on the barby!