A taste of May in March
Monday 3/7/16
1. A major pattern change has taken effect for most of the nation. This includes heavy rain and mountain snow in California (San Francisco has had more rain in the first week of this month than is average for all of March), an imminent change from dry to wet in South Texas and southern Louisiana (where many places had no rain in the first six days of the month) and a reversal from recent cold and spotty snow events in the Middle and North Atlantic states (Washington, D.C., had their first measurable snow since the middle of February last Friday).
2. Computer projections suggest the temperature will reach at least the 50s each day through the coming weekend from Chicago to New York City.
3. Longer range projections show some chillier weather arriving around the time when official winter ends on March 20 (12:30 AM EDT). However, no measurable snow is suggested in the models for Chicago and New York City before that date (though both places have had snow on later dates).
4. Substantial rainfall can break out from the western Gulf states to the central and western Great Lakes in the middle of this week.
5.A back door cold front is likely to slide down the coast later this week. While it will not get real cold behind the front, the cooldown will be noticeable because of how mild it will be ahead of the front.
This video has more:
This map shows the vast southwesterly flow that will be transporting warmer air toward the Northeast. A front in the upper left corner of the map has cold air behind it, but this push is already stalling. A low pressure area will move eastward along this boundary Wednesday and Thursday, and the front will move south through New England behind it.
