March Opens With All-Time Record Cold, 90.5% Of Great Lakes Is Ice, Cool Summer Likely To Follow!

Written by Mark Vogan on March 3, 2014 in United States of America with 0 Comments

The opening 48 hours of March 2014 will go down as one of the coldest from Canada to Texas as cities from the Upper Midwest to Southern Plains endure their coldest March weather in history.

While vicious cold extends from the Arctic to Texas, very warm, moist air resides across the Southeast and as a consequence, we are currently dealing with a major winter storm stretching from Texas to New England along a sharp demarcation zone. Heavy rain, snow and freezing rain is streaming ENE between the two extreme air masses with the focus of snow over the Mid-Atlantic. Ice has also played a significant factor with accumulation in and around metro Nashville, Tenn, causing power outages etc.

Here’s the latest satellite imagery of the storm.

Source: NWS

Surface map

Source: NWS

Yesterday will go down in history as the coldest day on record for March i9n many Heartland cities including Eau Claire, WI and Kansas City, MO. Low teens and single digits highs impacted places as far south as Oklahoma. Amarillo, TX saw a record cold high of 15 which was set just after midnight, the daytime max only managed 11 with single digit daytime highs in communities just to the north.

Here are the nations highs from yesterday.

Source: weather.com

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Here’s a close up of the brutal highs across Iowa, several cities saw their coldest or a tied their coldest March highs on record.

Source: NWS

Following a tie for the coldest winter in history, yesterday’s 1F high was the coldest March day ever recorded. Even down in Kansas City, the high of just 5 smashed the old record of 11 for the coldest March day in history.

NWS: All time coldest March Hi temps set at Waterloo -1F, Ottumwa 2F and tied at Des Moines 2F and Mason City -3F.

Here was this morning’s lows.

Source: weather.com

Temps dropped below zero all the way into the Texas Panhandle.

Once the storm system clears out tonight, temps will plummet in it’s wake and it’s going to be interesting just how cold it gets over the fresh Mid-Atlantic snowpack. Some all-time March record lows are possible.

Snow Totals through 36 hrs

Source: AccuWeather Pro

Here’s Tue AM’s forecasted lows off the ECMWF and GFS

Source: AccuWeather Pro

50th Sub Zero Day For Twin Cities/3rd Coldest Winter On Record For Chicago

Source: NWS

Great Lakes Ice Now Stand At 90.5%

Source: NOAA

I suspect that ice will lead to colder than normal lake temps well into summer and that, coupled with still warmer than normal waters over the northeast Pacific, ‘should’ lead to more of a trough and cooler summer from the Lakes to Southeast this summer.

Check out the Jamstec for the upcoming summer.

Water temps

Source: Jamstec

Air temp

Source: Jamstec

Here’s the CFSv2 temps March through August. Notice the persistence in below normal temps particularly over the Great Lakes but cold spring in the East.

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