3/12/12

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
12442736.075/199013442736.073/199014452836.077/199015452837.077/1990

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