Riley Trask, 10, climbed toward a small yellow lab sitting on the hill. Waiting, tail wagging, the dog watched Riley lean down and pack a snowball between thick mittens. As eager as the little lab, Riley turned and tossed the snow downhill.

Riley and her twin sister Dylann played with the handful of dogs at Newtown’s Park and Bark dog park Sunday, February 22, slipping through snow softening under unusually warm temperatures. Despite Saturday evening’s snowfall that added more than 4 inches to the snowcover lingering this month, Sunday afternoon saw the thermometers reach nearly 40 degrees.

As Riley and the yellow dog played, other dogs followed. Chuck LaVigna pointed to Finny, a little brown dog who rushed along fencing bordering Old Farm Road behind Reed Intermediate School, where the park sits alongside a popular dog walking area. Watching his dog bounce along the park’s fence, Mr LaVigna said he tries to take Finny out on warm days.

A small queue of pet owners watched their dogs trample the prior night’s snowfall, dashing around in the warm sunshine Sunday. They were not alone in stepping outdoors to bask in a break in temperatures that had dropped to minus seven degrees just two nights earlier.

Along Main Street and on Church Hill Road and down to Sandy Hook center, people — several wearing shorts or a T-shirt — walked along narrow shoveled paths. Children climbed small snow hills left by plows, or built and dressed snowmen.

On the front lawn of the home at 15 Church Hill Road were three snowmen, adorned in scarves and animated with twigs for arms and a gnarled carrot adding one grumpy nose. Too long in the direct sun, the largest snowman’s head toppled to the ground. Sunlight and warmth eventually dismantled all three, which had fallen by Monday.