If you are east of the Mississippi, Spring weather is here in full force! If anything, across the Carolinas, southeast and south central US, it’s feeling more like SUMMER! Expect a very warm weekend with the heart of the warmth spreading into the Great Lakes and the Northeast, but not as warm and for not as long. Sunday looks to be the warmest day with 70s getting to the Canadian border. Next week things shift in a big way. Yet again.

A cold front will come through. At first it didn’t look anywhere near as cold as Easter weekend… but two weeks this time of year changes climo anywhere from 5-10 degrees, in most of the country. The air is looking increasing colder and increasingly long lasting. The Polar Vortex is getting closer. If it was this close in winter, we’d actually have real winter. But it’s spring so… NO. We are in the time of year things warm up fast and cold snaps become a lot less powerful, and a lot less sustaining. Well, that’s the norm. This year, is not the norm. We just had the biggest Nor’easter dump record snow for so late in the season from the Virginias to New England, leaving hundreds of thousands without power for a good part of this week. And it looks like it’s little sister, or twin brother, or something is coming next week and could linger into the early part of May.

Can’t tell you how far south frosty cold gets. Can’t tell you how much farther south snowflakes get to fly in the air… or accumulate on the ground. Under good scenarios, I can say with confidence at 2-3, maybe 3 1/2 days. As we get increasingly into the “is this really happening” scenario, the time frame gets shorter. Just be aware if you live north of I-40 and especially north of I-70 anywhere EAST of the Mississippi next week and/or the first week of May for weather that is definitely out of season for your location.

West of the Mississippi… got your Bikini’s? And some water? We will be looking at high fire danger in the high plains and southern Rockies for the foreseeable future as the big western ridge gets established early in the summer season. This means lots of 90s and even possibly triple digits in some areas from Texas to New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and western Kansas/Oklahoma. Very dry. Drought conditions worsening in areas we don’t want or need them to worsen. But here we are.

Enjoy your weekend! I hope to be on a “normal” schedule next week now that my youngest son is done with hospital stays for awhile… I hope anyway…

Meteorologist Rich Lupia