Meteorological winter ends, but March is just getting started

Before we get into discussing winter temperatures, I wanted to put up this image of the burn scar from Texas. On Tuesday, fires took off north of Amarillo and spread very quickly. What exacerbated the problem was the shift in winds as the cold front moved on through and gusts continued to be well above 40 mph. The area burned was larger than Rhode Island. See for yourself the image from more than 20,000 miles above the Earth. Our technology is quick to pick up on hot spots and assuming a clear sky, they can clearly show burn scars.

Sadly, there's more extreme fire danger ahead and we hope everyone will do their part.

Winter (at least from one standpoint) ends

The end of February is the end of meteorological winter, but if you've been keeping up with the blog, I don't think winter is completely done with us just yet. More about that in a second. Despite the big cold snap in mid-January, it wasn't nearly enough to overcome a top 10 warmest December and now, a top 10 warmest February. 

Here's how the three months combined look (it doesn't have Feb. 29th factored in just yet):

March "normals" look like this:

It's quite possible that March (as a whole) will be near or slightly cooler than average. Our forecast for February was a bust on the cold, but signs are once again pointing toward more cool/chilly weather ahead. 

The first week of the month might be one of the warmest weeks we'll have. 

Mid-February turns cooler - we do have to remember that the averages are climbing as the month wears on and it appears unlikely for any Arctic air to return. However, highs in the 30s and even low 40s wouldn't be that much of a stretch. 

Late February continues to look cool too:

Rain will be back!! I have talked with some farmers in the last few weeks that are quick to remind me that even though drought conditions have improved, farm ponds are still quite low in many areas. The same thing can be said for area lakes too. I fully expect that the jet stream will remain active with a series of systems continuing off the West coast. This is moving into our wet season (April - June), and the more rain we can get now, the better suited we'll be for summer.

First full week of March:

Second full week of March:

An active jet coming out of the west should continue to provide opportunities through much of the month. Will we have a big blizzard? Will there be an early introduction to severe weather season? March can have it all, but what we do see is a shift toward wetter weather. Here's what we have for the end of our first week in March:

Have a great day!