Sunday, March 20, 2011

1st Day of Spring 2010 vs 2011

Welcome to spring!!!  After the rough winter, many are welcoming it with open arms.  While I was out enjoying the warmest temperatures since the end of last October, I couldn't help but think what happened on the first day of spring last year.  You may remember the strong storm system which tracked through the state giving western and northwestern Arkansas several inches of snow.  Some places in the northwest corner even got a foot of wet, slushy snow.  It stayed all rain in central Arkansas though.  The "WeatherNinja" woke up early and headed to Rich mountain to snow chase and ran into near blizzard conditions.  I have the video proof below.

Our stretch of well above average temperatures will continue right into Tuesday.  A front will come through and take temperatures to average or slightly below for the end of the week.  I'm not optimistic about rain chances with the front.  There may only be isolated showers or storms with it when it passes Wednesday morning.  There is quite a bit of debate with the timing and location of the next wave of low pressure for the weekend so we'll keep an eye on it.  The GFS would imply a chance for storms and the Euro is colder with the low suppressed to the south.  With it many days away, we'll have time to fine tune the forecast.

I'm getting very, very concerned about drought conditions for the state.  As you know, the southern half is in an extreme to severe drought with the wildfire danger at moderate and high for most of Arkansas.  This is typically the wet time of the year and we're not getting the needed rainfall.  Just be careful for what you ask, mother nature could open the faucet full force.  It would be nice to get about .5 to 1'' of rain a week for awhile.  Hopefully it won't come all at one time.

Below is the video from the "WeatherNinja"

1 comment:

jimmylee42 said...

Todd-

Spring has sprung for sure. From the wettest year on record in 2009, to a severe drought in less than two years. Hope we get our normal April showers this year and then some.

I'm still watching with interest to see if we get a 32 degree reading at the NLR station. The last time it was freezing at that station was Feb 11th at 15 degrees. Looking more and more like we will have a new record at that location for earliest last freeze.

The NEW Arkansas Weather Blog