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SNAPPING OUT OF THE WINTER DOLDRUMS
Though spring is here, today won’t show it
YOUNGSTOWN — It’s been a long, cold, snowy winter.
Even though spring starts today, those in the Mahoning Valley wanting more sunshine will have to wait till Saturday.
The temperature could drop to as low as 19 tonight, with a high today in the mid-30s.
The sun will shine in the Valley beginning Saturday and last through at least the middle of next week, said Mark Adams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland.
The area will see temperatures above normal for the next few days, including a high of 60 on Wednesday, Adams said.
“We’re certainly not starting out spring [today] with spring-like weather,” he said. “But temperatures will rebound on Saturday and be above normal after that.”
The weather service’s long-range forecast for spring is for normal temperatures and a normal amount of precipitation, Adams said.
The area’s seen only 0.6 of an inch of snow for March as of Thursday afternoon.
The average March snowfall in the Valley is 10.4 inches.
If there’s no additional accumulations, this would be the fourth-least-snowiest March in the area, based on weather service records that date back to 1934.
There was a trace of snow in March 1938. There was 0.2 of an inch of snow in both 1935 and 1939.
It’s also been a warm March. As of early Thursday, the average temperature is 38.4. That’s 3.9 degrees higher than normal for this point in a typical March, Adams said.
“March is a transition month,” Adams said. “Sometimes there’s a lot of snow; sometimes there’s a little. It’s possible there won’t be any more snow this March.”
Even with the small amount of snow this month, so far, the 2008-09 winter season is already No. 4 on the list of the greatest snow-accumulation winter seasons in the area.
“It’s been a back-and-forth winter,” Adams said. “We’ve had periods of a lot of snow, and since about mid-February, we’ve had very little.”
The snowfall this winter season is 83.5 inches as of Thursday afternoon.
That amount includes 35.8 inches two months ago, the third snowiest January on record.
Also, November was the third- snowiest for that month in recorded weather history with 17.3 inches.
The winter season with the most snow in the Valley was 2007-08 with 102.8 inches.
skolnick@vindy.com