FINALLY! It was the warm day we’d all been waiting for. Just don’t look ahead to Monday.

WEATHER: Stay up to date with the StormCenter 7 forecast

The high temperature in Dayton on Thursday reached 78 degrees — warmth you practically needed a plane ride to find in the first few weeks of “spring.”

Cold temperatures in March and April are not unusual, but Dayton weather is usually very up-and-down, making 2018 somewhat of an aberration.

From March 10 to April 10, Dayton had only 4 days with above-normal high temperatures, 1 day exactly on the average, and a mind-numbing 27 days below normal.

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Even on the few days in that stretch when the mercury did rise, it barely beat the average high — topping out between 55 and 59 on March 18, 19 and 29, and hitting 63 degrees on April 3. Compare that with March 2017, when Dayton had 3 days of highs in the 70s and six days in the 60s (to go along with a nasty cold snap or two).

The average temperatures in Dayton for the week of April 10 are a high of 60 and a low of 40. We should blow that out of the water again Friday, with a high of 77 and a mix of clouds and sun, according to WHIO’s StormCenter 7 forecast. Saturday may still touch 70 degrees as the rain rolls in.

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For those of you skeptics still holding a grudge against Mother Nature, yes, she’s still planning one more sucker punch Monday, with a high in the low 40s, a low temperature near freezing and some chance of snow.

But that’s the only day in the long-range forecast where the high temperature is predicted below 55. It’s three weeks late, but … Happy Spring!