Apr 2, 2012; 10:11 AM ET
Monday, 11:35 A.M.
The calendar officially says 'April' now, but the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball champions are to be decided tonight and tomorrow, respectively, so let the madness continue! In the wacky world of weather, there is still an abundance of unusual early season warmth, but we're also going to toss in measurable snow in Colorado, nocturnal thunderstorms that continue to have a life of their own in Texas and now Louisiana, and a parade of fronts through the Northeast that will lead to frost.
It's a veritable hodgepodge of weather today! I won't spend a lot of time on any one topic, but rather touch on the few that seem most interesting to me.
As far as the warmth goes, it's already running 3 degrees ahead of the pace set yesterday in St. Louis, where it reached 89 on Sunday. Simple logic would dictate the sitting record of 88 is history, with 90-plus a reasonable forecast for this afternoon. Not bad for April 2, eh? And how about the rest of the Plains and Mississippi Valley in between the two fronts:
That area encompasses eastern Nebraska, southern and western Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas into parts of Tennessee. Within this area, temperatures will be challenging, if not breaking records yet again, an extension of the warmth of March.
Speaking of which, did you see the laundry list of 'warmest March on record' locations? I lost count, and it pretty much included everyone from the eastern Rockies to the Eastern Seaboard, and from the Gulf coast to the Canadian border. Many places saw average temperatures for the month of March exceed the old record by 4 or 5 degrees, some by nearly 7 degrees! That's beyond astounding! And in some instances, the average temperature last month was quite a bit higher than the normal average for April. We're not quite done with all of this record warmth, but the days are clearly numbered this week.
Meanwhile, over Texas and now Louisiana we find what is termed a Mesoscale Convective System, or MCS for short. It's a 50-cent term for a cluster of thunderstorms that get together and literally roll along in the flow, fed by tremendously warm and humid air ahead of it in the low levels, and some hot air up above feeding into the back side of it from the southwest while the air high up is quite cool. It's a recipe for thunderstorms with damaging winds and hail, some of which we've seen overnight and early this morning over Southeast Texas. Expect more of it the rest of the day in the aforementioned areas.
This nocturnal beast is likely to show up again over the Big Bend area of Texas tonight, a blow up of thunderstorms near or after dark that will then progress downstream into an unstable and moisture laden environment. So don't be surprised if this means more rough weather late tonight and tomorrow across South and Southeast Texas into Louisiana.
Behind the cold front coming out of the Rockies is a much chillier air mass. It's about 40 degrees colder today in Denver than it was yesterday, and as the north to northeast winds gradually moisten, snow should break out along the Front Range. I would not at all be shocked to see someone outside of the foothills rack up a half a foot of snow in the next 36 hours as this closed low rolls slowly by to the south and southeast:
Given the fires of last week in Jefferson County, the moisture will be welcomed, even if it comes in solid form.
Lastly in the Northeast, yet another upper level trough has driven a strong cold front southward through the East overnight and this morning. While this trough is quite deep, its focus is off the coast. Still, it will be much colder tonight across the interior of the entire Northeast, especially where there is no wind. And that means frost, which in most years would be par for the course. But given the unprecedented warmth of March, it can mean trouble.
Another cold front will follow at midweek, with high pressure building in Thursday and Friday to keep temperatures in check for the entire week. That said, it's largely a dry week in the region, and on the heels of a dry March, is not good for the start of the growing season. Rain is needed, and needed soon. None of consequence is expected for the better part of a week
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