We'll have it all weather wise this week in the U.S. with a early Spring blizzard, severe weather, tornadoes, flooding, spring temps, winter temps and might as well throw in some sneezing and bugs for good measure.
First up is a storm system that will move into the Central States with severe weather out in front of it while a snow storm rages on the northern fringe of the system from Colorado to Northern Michigan. A widespread band of 4-8" is likely from Colorado and Wyoming through South Dakota and Nebraska midweek and then into Southern Minnesota/Iowa and ultimately Wisconsin and Northern Michigan. There will be some pockets of 12" snow totals and even upwards of 18" further East into Northern Wisconsin and northern Michigan by Thursday.
On the southern fringe of the storm there will be 1-5" rainfall totals in the Southeast from Louisiana to North Florida along with some severe weather in the form of severe thunderstorms and even some tornadoes Thursday and again over the Easter weekend. Temperatures will surge some 25 degrees ahead of this cold front in the East through late week. Bugs and allergies are all off to a strong early start in the South and East with the 2nd warmest first few weeks of March on record, more similar to the really warm start in2012.
On a global scale the cold spots for the first two weeks of Spring are in Central and Eastern Canada where they will get off to the 3rd year in a row with a cold start to Spring. Not as cold as last year's near record cold, but cold enough. This will set the stage for a cold start to April in the Central and parts of the Eastern U.S. as this cold air dives South in the week ahead. The very warm March will be a distant memory with a chillier April for the Eastern half of the U.S. and very likely the 2nd coldest April of the past 18 years in the Central U.S. and coldest in 3 years for the U.S. overall, driest in 4 but snowiest in 3...not exactly good news for most retailers or warm seasonal products.
To see how we help Fortune 1,000 companies, watch our latest video which also provides a few sneak peeks at our year-ahead forecast.
http://www.weathertrends360.com/B2B/Episode/1
Hope your week is off to a great start! - Capt Kirk out.