April Starts This Week, But Winter Is Still Hanging Tough

Looking at the national weather maps this Sunday evening, it looks more like the end of February than the cusp of April.  

Webcam image from Coles Pond, Walden, Vermont
at an elevation of about 2,250 feet
still has three feet of snow on the ground
with April starting the day after tomorrow. 

Winter weather advisories extend from the metro DC areas up into Maine, where they turn into a winter storm warning.

Blizzard and winter storm warnings are up for large parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota, and freeze advisories are in effect in Alabama and Georgia.

This spring has been reluctant all along. And despite occasional promises to the contrary, it's still incredibly reluctant, and going to stay that way for awhile.

Yes, of course, there have been attempts at spring, and those attempts are increasing. It got up to 60 degrees in Minneapolis today for the first time since last fall, and might get to 60 again tomorrow.

But, one step forward, one step backwards. By later Monday night, it looks like it will be snowing in Minneapolis.

It's the same down by Washington DC. Temperatures flirted with 70 degrees Friday, and today it snowed. And that's quite unusual for this late in the season.

Up here where I live, in St. Albans, Vermont, it's been a mix of light rain and light snow all day, and freezing rain and sleet is forecast for much of the state overnight. Snow is still deep on the ground, almost everywhere at a time of the year when most of it is usually gone from the valleys.

It looks like this March in Burlington, Vermont will come out around the third or fourth coldest on record.

The outlook for the progress of spring over the next week or two is mixed at best. There will be bouts of warmish, humid air in the southeastern quarter of the country over the next week. There might even be something of an outbreak of severe weather in toward the end of the week in Tornado Alley, which is typical for spring.

But across the winter weary north from the Dakotas to New England, it won't be all that springlike for the next week at least. On April Fool's Day, high temperatures across parts of North Dakota might not get past 20 degrees.

True, it will be closer to normal than it's been in many spots, especially in New England, but even in the valleys in northern New England, the deep snow will only thaw slowly.

Yep, the season of warm weather is going to be a short one this year, folks. At least it's getting off to a very late start.

Maybe next year will be the Year Without a Winter, who knows?