Bastardi: Forecast for the Rest of Winter Looks Rough

[dkmac]

Keep your parkas handy!

For people who are sick of the cold and snow and hoping for a quick end to winter, AccuWeather.com Chief Long Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi may have bad news.
More persistent cold is expected to hold strong through at least the middle of February across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country. Bastardi also expects wintry events to last into April in some areas, which would be longer than last year.
Based on what is predicted for the rest of the season, Bastardi also says that this winter could end up being the coldest for the nation as a whole since the 1980s.
Persistent Cold, Storminess to Continue from Plains to East
While cold weather is of course a part of winter, the persistent nature of colder-than-normal conditions and a lack of brief warm spells people can typically look forward to during midwinter have been unusual this season. Temperatures since Dec. 1, 2010 have averaged below normal from Boston and New York City to Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Atlanta and even Miami.
Temperatures are expected to continue averaging below normal in many of these places, from the northern and central Plains into the East, through at least the middle of February.
The biggest snowstorms in February will target areas mainly north of a line running from the Mason-Dixon Line to the Ohio River and I-40 across the Plains, according to Bastardi.

Just to the south of this line (from Amarillo, Texas to about Atlantic City, N.J.) is where Bastardi expects storms to vary between producing snow, ice and rain for the bulk of the rest of the winter.
It will not be until late February into March that opportunities arise for the colder-than-normal weather pattern to break. However, Bastardi warns that there could be a return of cold and storms across the northern part of the nation, including the Great Lakes and Northeast, from mid- or late March into April.
He says this will be quite a change for the Great Lakes and Northeast as compared to last year, when the regions experienced their warmest back-to-back March and April on record.
He adds that late-season winter storms in the Plains and East are common during La Niñas, when sea surface temperatures across the equatorial central and eastern Pacific are below normal. Bastardi says the current La Niña could continue into next year.
Bastardi says La Niñas also tend to "conjure up a more intense severe weather season," which typically ramps up in April into May from the southern Plains to the Great Lakes, mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/new...or-rest-of.asp

[Xanadu]

Great. lol As long as their isn't a snowstorm when I go into labor (hopefully) in April! This whole winter has proven that our little southern towns really aren't ready or able to remove snow and deal with any significant snowfall. I know the places that did have precautions in place had to remove them from the budget (untimely) because of the recession. I saw in the paper this week how it costs our one county 40,000$ for equipment, salt, etc that we didn't have. That's every time it snows, plus the kids are out of school a week and there aren't any more days allotted for them now. It's always a mess, but I remember in 93' we had to go to school an extra 30 minutes each day to get done in time. LOVE the snow but not the aggravation it causes our little southern towns :)