Wild, unpredictable spring weather
It’s been a wild week of weather across Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Some folks may think it was unusual, however old-timers and folks who have lived here for decades just see it as normal springtime weather. One day it’s winter and the next it’s summerlike and spring gets in a few days between the warm and cold.
March so far is averaging about 8 degrees above normal and the year-to-date average since Jan 1 is normal as we were on the cold side in January and February and this offset the mild March.
This may come as a bit of a surprise as many will remember this winter for our cold and snow.
On March 7 the high temperature was 83 degrees, following a warm morning of 60 degrees. These temperatures made for a day that was 32 degrees above average.
Ten days later we had a low of 17 and an afternoon high of just 28 making for a day with temperatures 20 degrees below our normal or average.
After getting the golf clubs out early in the month it was time to bring back the skis as this past Monday saw our morning temperature plummet from the mid-60s to the low 20s by midnight.
The drop in temperature was accompanied by winds and heavy snow that left accumulations from 3-to-6 inches across the region. Roads quickly became dangerous and the additional winds and snow played havoc with utility repair crews who were still struggling to deal with the many power outages from the weekend of high winds and downed trees and power lines.
Spring can be beautiful with its warming days and budding trees but it can also be cruel when the Arctic winds and cold return and do so much damage.
Pink and white Magnolia trees and Yellow Forsythia bushes that were enticed to open the show a bit early just could not handle the intense cold of this past Tuesday and many simply turned brown and gave up for this year. Daffodils also suffered from the snow and ice.
In addition to the cold and wind, March can produce heavy snowfalls across our region and the Blizzard of 1993 was a good example of what can happen when 20 inches accompanied the storm. Snow fell from the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Mississippi all the way to Northern Maine with over 50 inches reported in the mountains of North Carolina.
Even after March we can get a heavy snow as evidenced by the 8 inches that fell across Uniontown and Southwestern Pennsylvania on April 28, 1928. Somerset had a total of 38.5 inches.
Now that’s a spring snowstorm.
Sunday should reach into the 70s and the next few weeks will be closer to average with highs in the 50s and lows in 30s. No big snows look to be on the horizon at least for this coming week.