Roller Coaster of Spring

Written by: Brian Neudorff

In the last 7 days we have had snow, (Friday March 28th) and a cold weekend, with highs in the 30s and 40s. Spring teased us a little on Monday and Tuesday with temperatures rising into the 50s and 60s. Then the chill of winter returned Wednesday and Thursday morning, but now it appears spring-like weather is trying to assert itself as the dominant season as we go into the weekend and the early part of next week.

This has a l0t of people still asking, "Where is spring?" and wondering when the up and down roller coaster of temperatures will come to an end. Unfortunately these fluctuation in daily high temperatures are common during the transition months of spring and autumn.

In one of our previous post, "A cold lock on Northeast temperatures" meteorologist Bob Metcalfe discusses how the jet stream plays a roll in these temperature swings. As the case is during the spring, warmer air to the south wants to make a return to the north. As it does it starts to push the jet stream back to the north, this causes a clash between air masses. The clash of warm and cold air masses set the stage for storm systems to develop out of the gulf and plain states and move east and northeast. This also sparks the severe weather season in the plains and into the deep south. So far this season most of the storms have been taking very similar paths and that is why the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys are dealing with floods and the plain and southern states are dealing with severe weather, and why here in western New York it has been hard for us to break out of this cool weather pattern.