Spring Arrives Thursday But Keep the Winter Gear Handy

Spring officially arrives Thursday at 12:57pm, and while this may make you want to break out into the dance of joy, every party needs a pooper and you can count on us for that.  Er...well... that was supposed to read "you can count on us to give you pertinent weather information for our area."

Forecasters are spreading word of what, in the meteorological world, is called a "Rex Block."  NOAA defines a Rex Block as "A blocking pattern where there is an upper level high located directly north of a closed low."  A Rex Block basically pauses weather progress, and right now, this Rex Block is pausing warmth and allowing arctic air to push in to Michigan and much of the east coast again.

NOAA's Weather Prediction Center explains in more detail:

 "At the very least, potential exists for unusually far southward extent of some wintry precipitation for late March ... given cold sector temperature anomalies of 10-25 degrees Fahrenheit below normal. At the very most the potential exists for southern/northern [jet] stream interaction to form a late season Midwest to Eastern U.S. winter storm by Tuesday/Wednesday."

So, it's not just cold that we may be having to deal with over the next 7 days.  We could be talking about a significant amount of snow.  For the record, Weather Underground lists the historical latest measurable snowfall for Detroit as May 22nd.  So a late March or even an April snow isn't exactly out of the ordinary for mid-Michigan.