Spring is almost here
Depending on where you live in the United States, warmer weather has already began its annual push to the north, gradually forcing the cold arctic air to where it belongs -back up north. For many, the winter of 2010-2011 will be remembered as one that brought record snowfalls to areas from Chicago to New England and record March flooding to parts of New England and northern New Jersey.
But it’s soon to be over.
April’s Conditions
According to Paul Pastelok, leader of the AccuWeather.com Long-Range Forecasting Team, the end of March forecast could bring more of the same weather for the northern United States. He expects spring 2011 to start off with colder-than-normal temperatures in an area from the northern Rocky Mountain states through the Middle Atlantic states. The Ohio River Valley, which saw its fair share of snowstorms this past winter, could be headed for a rainy and stormy spring 2011, he says.
The 2011 spring weather forecast for the Southern United States calls for a warmer-than-normal trend from Arizona through Texas through the Southeast United States. However, there is a price. The south will tend to be dryer than normal with a worsening drought forming in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
The Weather Centre forecast
The Weather Centre agrees with AccuWeather, somewhat, in the conditions it sees in making its 2011 spring weather forecast. The Weather Centre is calling for a dry air mass to take hold of the western two-thirds of the country, which is good news for some but bad news for farmers. Cooler-than-normal conditions in the first half of spring across the northern third of the United States could lead to later-than-normal last frost in a large part of the country.
Both AccuWeather and the Weather Centre agree that the battleground for spring 2011 stormy weather will be along the Mississippi this year in an area that stretches into the Ohio River Valley.
National Weather Service 2011 Spring Weather Forecast
The Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Services doesn’t go into specifics when it releases its seasonal forecasts on the third Thursday of each month. However, the Climate Prediction Center lists trends. In its 2011 Spring forecast, the National Weather Center calls for drier-than-normal conditions across the extreme Southern United States and normal conditions across the rest of the country.
As far as temperatures, the Center says Spring 2011 will be warmer across the bottom half of the United States. The Northeast and Great Lakes should experience normal temperatures. An area along the Canadian border from the western Great Lakes to the Pacific Northwest will be cooler than normal in the Spring of 2011.
A look ahead: Winter 2011-12
If you were one of the millions of people from Chicago to Boston who has endured brutal back-to-back winter weather conditions, there is a rainbow of sorts on the horizon, according to the Climate Prediction Center. Looking ahead, the center predicts warmer-than normal temperatures across the Northeast United States, according to a long range outlook issued in late February.
