Officially, the first day of spring in 2022 was March 20. In Maine, March and April bring snow, frost, rain, mud and summer-like warmth within the space of a few days. Our signs of spring, like opening day at Red’s Dairy Freeze or the first Sea Dogs game, are celebrated whatever the weather. And nothing is as sweet as hearing the birds sing and seeing the first daffodils bloom halfway through April.

March is the month when winter officially ends, spring takes hold, and daylight savings time, well, saves us. This year, it also brought us the start of spring high school sports outdoors, our first ice cream at Red’s Dairy Freeze, and, the heartbreaking news from the war in Ukraine. Here are some of the best photos of the month by Press Herald photographers.

Maine Maple Sunday is always the fourth Sunday of March, and this is the 39th year of the annual event, which features open sugarhouses throughout the state, farm tours, pancake breakfasts and sales of all kinds of maple products. This year was fully open, after a canceled year in 2020 because of the pandemic, and a modified event in 2021. Maine Maple Sunday is more than just a sales event, though. It’s a harbinger of sweet, sweet spring, after a long, cold winter.

It snowed, and thawed, and sleeted and thawed, and snowed some more. On the 23rd, we claimed spring for a day, breaking records when the temperature soared to the mid-60s. It was a month of bad ice, high energy costs, good skiing and great high school sports. Here are some of the best photos from the month by Press Herald photographers.

Portraits of winter in Maine by the Press Herald’s photographers