John Steinbeck famously wrote, “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?”

Those words ring especially true as this winter has been brutally cold and filled with snow, leaving many looking forward to the sweetness of spring and summer.

Today’s expected storm would be the ninth to bring plowable snow this winter. Gary Lessor, a meteorologist with the Western Connecticut State University Weather Center, said we can expect 2 to 5 inches in the immediate shoreline area while northern portions of New London County could see 5 to 9 inches.

About 2 to 3 inches of snow was expected to fall overnight and into the morning. The snow will then change into rain and then back into snow after midnight. The snow will continue into early Friday morning, with additional accumulations of 1 to 2 inches.

Lessor said there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight, as another storm is expected to develop Friday night into early Saturday, bringing another inch or 2 of snow.

And there’s another storm — mostly rain — that is expected to come Monday night into Tuesday.

But there is hope, Lessor said, as all the climate models are showing a warming trend later this month.

“Once we reach the 21st, 22nd, it will start to get warm again and it could even break into the 50s,” Lessor said. “That doesn’t mean winter is over. March can be a very rough month.”

Lessor said that long-range climate models predict a warmer winter next year.

i.larraneta@theday.com