Sunday, March 7, 2010

What Happened To Winter?

Each year you know spring is around the corner when you hear people out riding their motorcycles - today they were out in full force! It looks like the cold Canadian air will stay bottled up north through at least next weekend. The next three days will be mainly quiet, then it's looking like it will be a stormy end to the week. A powerful storm will park itself over the Midwest and draw in moisture from both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. You will definitely notice the changes by Thursday and Friday!


We should see two or three waves of rain between Thursday and Saturday. In addition, we could see isolated thunderstorms embedded in these showers. Although the threat for severe storms seems limited at the time, a few strong storms could develop on Friday. Surface dew points should reach the lower 50s:


I'm expecting surface temps to also climb to near 70 degrees in the afternoon, so there should be enough instability to support thunderstorm development.


Jet stream winds will be strong enough to provide speed shear (increasing winds with height). However, this shear might be too strong and limit thunderstorm development.


This is still a long way out, and there are a lot of factors to consider. Regardless, it will be something that we will monitor through the week and will keep you updated!