Well… somewhere across this great land…it actually feels like spring!

Can you believe it?

Indeed it has been very cold, with heavy amounts of snow production across much of the upper Midwest, Great Lakes, northeast, and New England states. Temperatures have been in the single digits – factor in the wind chill (northwestern gusts clocking in at 50+ along the Michigan and Wisconsin shorelines on Thursday for example)… It’s cold. Two feet of snow has fallen over Upper Michigan. Lake effect snow has kick started again in Upstate New York – remember the 8-14 foot snow heights in Watertown and Oswego. Of course, that was record snowfall that occurred during winter, technically speaking.

Is it winter?

Please… a reprieve if you will from this wintry onslaught. Alas, all it takes is for any specific weather event (as I have mentioned before in previous blogs) is that the elements and/or ingredients come together at the right time and under the right circumstances.

In short – much of the eastern portion of this country is ripe for such events. Cold Canadian air circulates around an area of low pressure that has lingered over the Great Lakes for the last 3 days. The unstable air mass has all the upper level support to produce the white stuff and it has fallen in abundance. The strong winds freeze warnings and watches, lake effect snow tallies, winch chill…all of these resulting factors have made a re-appearance in parts of the country that thought that winter was done. Not so. Not yet.

Next week will be better though. Temperatures will moderate near normal levels across the Midwest, however further north and east the thaw will take at least a week before we can take about a truly temperate moderation. Hang in…