Thursday, March 5, 2009

Weekend Update

The evening data is in and continues to support high temperatures in the upper 70s to near 80 degrees this weekend in central Virginia. Temperatures today reached the low 90s in central Texas and southwest Oklahoma, and mid 70s were experienced as far north as central Iowa. Expect the warm weather to last through the weekend, with a cooler air mass settling into the area by the middle of next week.

From Record Lows To...Record Highs?

We set a new record cold temperature for March on Wednesday of 10 degrees, but with the strong upper ridge headed our way this weekend, it begs the question, "Could we set a record low and a record high in the same week?"

Well, here are the record highs to beat Saturday and Sunday:

March 7: 83 degrees (1974)
March 8: 85 degrees (2000)

We are forecasting highs at Richmond International Airport this weekend in the upper 70's to near 80 degrees, which is several degrees shy of those records. Still, it is pretty incredible that we start out the week with a snowstorm and a foot of accumulation with record cold temperatures, and end up with near-record highs. We are definitely entering that tumultuous transition time from Winter to Summer, known as Spring!
--Carrie