Now that winter (what little we had) is nearly over, what might we expect this spring? Well, the Vernal Equinox kicks off Tuesday, just after midnight and right now the forecast look stormy for us with a LOT of rain. But what about the long term? The image above shows the projection for temperatures and the image below shows precipitation across the country according to the Climate Prediction Center (a branch of the National Weather Service):
So warmer weather should continue, which is not a good sign in the season leading into summer! While we're not expecting above normal rainfall, any more we get should help us continue to climb out of drought status. In fact, improving drought conditions are forecast for a large part of Texas. The only exceptions are the far west and along the Rio Grande border:
Something interesting to note about this past winter. It was fairly mild as the high-speed, high altitude winds of the jet stream rarely advanced south of the Canadian border. That's one of the reasons why there isn't as much snow this year across the country compared to last year at this time. Here's what the U.S. snowfall looked like in March 2011:
And this March:
That's important because a lack of snow melt means there might not be the kind of massive flooding that occurred the past two Springs along the Grand Forks and Mississippi Rivers.
