According to meteorologists, “meteorological spring’” arrived last week on March 1. For those who prefer to mark the seasons astronomically, spring officially will arrive in two weeks on March 20 (at 5:01 AM), marking the vernal equinox.

But regardless of one’s preference, we always have viewed March as the ultimate tease.

The poet Emily Dickinson extolled the arrival of March (“Dear March—Come in— How glad I am—”). But  Emily Dickinson lived in Amherst, far from the coast, where ocean breezes off the still-frigid Atlantic — water temps are their coldest in March — can lower the dreaded wind-chill factor by 10 degrees even on sunny days.

For those of us who have been lifelong residents of Eastern Mass., March is the month on the calendar that we long for with great anticipation after the harsh winter season. But it always disappoints, like an object of desire that fails to live up to our expectations.

Although this past winter was chillier than the past few, our recent winters have not been too tough to take, thanks to milder-than-normal temperatures and the lack of snow, which environmental scientists tell us is the beginning of a long-term trend of warmer winters because of climate change. Those milder winters have given us all the more reason to hope that March would be even more temperate compared to the past.

But our hopes regularly have been dashed by Mother Nature.

To be sure, the weather is getting warmer and the sun brighter. The crocuses and snowdrops have been pushing through the ground, especially in the areas of our gardens that are in full sun. But the cold weather and brisk winds that are forecast for the coming week, with below-freezing temperatures every night and in the early-morning, are anything but a harbinger of the coming spring season.

One of the earliest memories of our childhood was learning the aphorism, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” Despite the onset of climate-change, that saying remains as true today as it was then.