Weather for Second Half of March

Talk about March Madness and I don't mean basketball.

I woke up to my windows vibrating and my dog's paws skittering across the hardwood floors attempting to hide from the sound of thunder this morning. That didn't work. A few more tremendous rumbles found him in his hiding place as well.

On Saturday we exceeded 70 degrees in Louisville. On Sunday, a short trip outside of the city's limits, 3 inches of snow accumulated for a time. This morning, it was 37 at my house with thunder, wind, and heavy rain.

What a way to begin the second half of March.

The weather professionals are promising temperatures well into the 50's today. That's actually down from the lower 60's. Looking at recent observations, though, just before the 10:00am time frame, I'm seeing the warmer air getting pinched off, sliding eastward across the southern and southeastern parts of our viewing area. I would be surprised if we see over 50 degrees today here in Louisville.

Speaking of 50 degrees, I looked at a recent chart of high temperatures here. Here's what I found....

Temps >= 50 degrees (number of days during the month)

January - 10
February - 12
March - 7 (through the 17th)

Technically, we're over half way through the month. If we don't reach 50 today, don't look for it again for the rest of the week. Can you imagine March being cooler than February (which was below normal cool as well)?

I hate to bring up the past. But did you know that at this time last year, we reached 82 degrees? That would begin a 5-day stretch of temperatures in the 80's! And this was after we had already recorded 80 degrees or better for a couple of days earlier in the month.

Looking ahead, here's what the CPC is saying for the rest of the month....

>70 percent chance that temps will be below normal for the March 23-27 time frame.
>50 percent chance that temps will be below normal for the March 25-31 time frame.

Most locations will have equal chances for slightly above or slightly below normal precipitation.

Later.
MS