Spring Has Arrived Prematurely And In Grand Fashion! /updated to include records of consecutive days of 60 degrees in March/

Though spring doesn't officially arrive for another week, the weather across Southeast Lower Michigan will seem like we are in the heart of spring already. An exceptionally strong upper ridge of high pressure for this time of year is slated to build with time over the eastern half of the country into the next week. This of course, includes the actual first day of spring which falls on Tuesday, March 20th @ 114 AM EDT. Green up across the region should begin relatively quickly with the expectant warm weather; as the soil temperatures respond accordingly in the next couple of weeks.

Records of consecutive 60 degree days in March for Detroit, Flint and Saginaw from the NWS.

Consecutive 60-degree days in March for Detroit

Year	Days
1945	9
1910	8
1945	7
1998, 1995, 1968	6

*There were 2 separate strings of 60+ days in 1945

Consecutive 60-degree days in March for Flint and Saginaw (identical)

Year	Days
1910	10
1998, 1968, 1945, 1945	6

*There were 2 separate strings of 60+ days in 1945

Also, to the staunch weather buffs in the crowd this upper air pattern is similar to that of March of 1990 when Detroit and surrounding areas Southeast Lower Michigan saw numerous record highs; highs that could be tough to beat this week at Detroit, Flint or Saginaw.

                                   Detroit March 12-15th, normals @ 1990 records

12

44

27

36.0

75/1990

13

44

27

36.0

73/1990

14

45

28

36.0

77/1990

15

45

28

37.0

77/1990

Looking back to the upper wind 500 MB pattern for the entire month of March 1990; shows the strong positive 500MB and 850MB height anomalies over the East.

Looking further out, the 15th will not be the end of near or record territory warmth possibilities. As mentioned above, the upper ridge is expected to hang tough and possibly build even stronger into what is called an Omega Block in meteorological terms; simply because of its resemblance to the Greek omega symbol Ω in the upper air pattern.

Checking out some model predictions next week on the first day of spring /GFS-20th/ and Wednesday /Euro-21st/ displays this pattern but of course; time will tell if the atmosphere builds the upper ridge with such aggressiveness. If so, some near record or record warmth could again be in the cards.

GFS, 3/20
                                                               

Euro, 3/21

Looking further down the calendar at the records for March at Detroit from the 16th through the 25th shows us the following:

16	46	28	37.0	74/1945	19/1900	56/1945	4/1900	65/1945	12/1900	1.15/1876	16
17	46	29	38.0	75/1945	13/1941	51/1927	-2/1900	60/1945	7/1900	0.97/1973	17
18	47	29	38.0	72/1903	14/1876	50/1894	7/1916	61/1894	10/1876	0.99/1925	18
19	47	30	38.0	76/1921	15/1883	55/1903	4/1885	62/1903	11/1885	0.93/1881	19
20	48	30	39.0	73/1918	11/1885	59/1921	-2/1885	66/1921	4/1885	0.88/1984	20
21	48	30	39.0	73/1991	16/1885	50/1918	-1/1885	61/1918	8/1885	1.03/1994	21
22	48	31	40.0	81/1938	18/1906	55/1938	3/1885	68/1938	11/1885	0.93/1916	22
23	49	31	40.0	73/1994	18/1888	51/1953	2/1888	57/1945	10/1888	0.91/1938	23
24	49	31	40.0	81/1910	16/1888	50/1928	2/1888	61/1928	10/1888	0.96/1947	24
25	50	32	41.0	78/1945	25/1940	51/1963	4/1974	61/1945	17/1974	1.73/1954	25

Again, all records for March for Detroit, Flint and Saginaw can be found here.

Making weather fun while we all learn,
Bill Deedler -SEMI_WeatherHistorian