Yeah, It’s March. So What.
As a lifelong weather junkie, I’ve become acquainted with the term “meteorological spring.” This states that the spring season doesn’t begin on the vernal equinox (March 20 this year), but rather on March 1, with the weather turning the corner toward warmer temperatures.
This may be true in some years, but this March is starting out anything but spring-like. There is a winter storm watch out for tomorrow, and we may get the biggest snowfall of this winter.
Or not. I sympathize with the weather forecasters because their job is always hard, it has become much harder because of the often unpredictable impacts of global climate change, and in our region, there are typically narrow bands in which the gradients between cold enough to snow and too warm to snow can be only a few miles apart.
So as of 11:45 a.m. today (Thursday), the majority opinion is that in Chicago we will get somewhere between five to 10 inches of snow, with the disclaimer that the actual flight path of the storm is unclear and confidence in that prediction is low. Meaning we could end up with mostly rain, a small amount of snow, or a large amount of snow, with the outside possibility of the Storm of the Century. (I included the time because the snow prediction may change by the time you read this.)
Anyway, keep an eye on the skies. No matter how much snow we actually get, it sounds like tomorrow will be a miserable day, with high winds, cold temperatures and lots of precipitation, be it mostly frozen or liquid. Might be a good idea to run those chores today.
One irony is that a few weeks ago I was worried about one of those warm blooming March periods followed by a late hard freeze in April destroying fruit trees like we had around 2011. I believe my fears have proven to be ungrounded. Guess I won't be riding my bike to Saturday's market.