Hi Jeff and WeatherCat drought sufferers,
Finally 3" of snow with .26" of prec. More light snow in the forecast but most of the precip heading north. I hope this pattern of every month or several weeks without meaningful precip ends real soon.
Alas, what is forecast is precisely the opposite of everybody's wishes. We've had 3 modest storms after the monster storm of the end of February. They bought in total only 0.69" (18mm) of rain. The last storm completely fizzled at 0.02" (less than 1mm). Now the forecast is for a return of the ridge of high pressure through the middle of next week, bringing summertime temperatures and of course a rapid depletion of the soil moisture.
Next week sometime, the ridge is supposed to be broken, but there are no storms that are expected to go through the opening to bring us any rain. The current forecast is for dry conditions and above normal temperatures right up to the last week of March. As usual, this ridge should shunt the jet stream way north, so temperatures on the eastern part of country should be driven down by the arctic air. It might also cause extreme storms in Europe as happened during the last spell of dry weather in January.
So definitely a lot of gloom and doom. The only hope is the same hope that has bailed us out in February. The forecast models don't seem to be working very well beyond 1 week. So we have to hope they are incorrect once more. Definitely not the sort of happy situation to be left with.
Heavy sigh, . . . Edouard
