Halfway through meteorological spring, it seems to me that this has been one of the nicest our area has seen in quite a few years. While much of the country has had a hard time getting out of what feels like endless winter, we're in just the right spot to benefit from this rather unusual pattern that has brought late-season snow to the east coast and the Rockies, heavy rain and wind to California, and record breaking cold to the northern states. On the upside for Columbus and vicinity:
- Temperatures have been seasonable since we smashed records with our warmest February ever. March was near normal and April so far even a bit below. Our warmest temperature so far has been 85º just once, on April 3, and we've had numerous sunny days spent in the 60s and 70s. Compare that to last April, the warmest in the city's history, when we had 12 straight days in the mid 80s or higher and 90º before the month was over as an upper ridge dominated the pattern across the South. We can thank the presence of an upper trough over eastern North America for keeping temperatures from going crazy too early. The longer we can hold off using our air conditioning units, the better off we'll be, financially and otherwise.
- There's been a lack of severe weather in this area and in fact, around the entire country this spring. That's a bit puzzling, considering there has been a seemingly constant parade of storm systems sweeping from the west coast all the way across the continent. So far, the necessary ingredients have not come together with most of those systems to generate much in the way of tornadoes or other severe storms. The one exception was the March 19 system that brought a minor tornado outbreak to Alabama and Georgia but missed the Bi-Cities almost totally.
- Air quality has been unusually good this spring. Controlled burns - most of which take place on Army territory and are a necessary thing - have mostly kept smoke away from the city by taking advantage of winds from the proper direction. This has not always been the case in recent years, and the smoke and particulate matter has been known to spoil an otherwise beautiful day.
- Rainfall has been a bit sparse, and Columbus is now running nearly 7 inches below average for the year to date. But there has been just enough to allow lawns and gardens to get off to a fertile start. The only downside is that much of the rain has come on weekends, so that the frequent sunny days have largely happened during the work week. You can chalk that up to just random chance and the trend could flip at any time.
- The state's strawberry, peach, pecan, and apple crops should be better this year. While there were light frosts on March 9th and 15th, the state didn't experience anything like the devastating hard freeze that occurred on March 16 a year ago. This past winter provided sufficient chill hours for tree crops thanks mostly to a cold January, a huge turnaround from last year. Flowering trees like cherry, dogwood, bradford pear, and of course azaleas have had a prolific spring versus a subpar 2017, despite blooming early due to the February warmth.
Short term weather: the Midwest is currently getting hammered by one of the stronger cyclones in this stormy season. Severe storms, tornadoes, ice, and blizzard conditions will be felt over a wide swath of the U.S. through the weekend. Our area will get one round of threatening weather late Saturday through the first part of Sunday. Working in our favor is that the storms will likely hit mostly after dark, which usually means they will be undergoing a weakening trend. Keep an eye on the latest forecasts tonight and Saturday, and keep in mind we need the rain - next week looks like it will be back to sunny, dry and pleasant.
Meteorologist Kurt Schmitz
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