A picture (or graph) for the proverbial thousand words.
I totally missed the "first snow." It was back in early December, early morning, all gone by 11:00 am, which was when I poked my nose out that morning.
NOBODY could miss the Christmas Eve blizzard. Pictures two posts back.
The "third snow" was beautiful but short-lived, as the snow changed to light rain before it ended, and the temperature stayed just above freezing that night.
And then there's THIS. Clear dry weather, but oh, my! The forecast for last night was about 12°F. It was actually "only" 14° or 15°. Tonight they say 9°.