By MARK HANOK
Temperatures were near
normal in March, with precipitation
around an inch
below normal.
There were 24 sunny or
partly sunny days this
month.
Once again last week we
got an example of how the
more unusual the weather
pattern across the nation
and the more storms to the
south and west, the better
the weather in Otsego
County.
The first week of April
will feature some quick
changes as one low pressure
system after another
moves across the nation.
On Friday as a storm
system tracks eastward to
Lake Ontario, we’ll be on
the mild side of the storm,
with occasional rain and
highs from 55 to 60 degrees.
As a northwest flow of cooler
air takes over on Saturday,
a few showers in the
morning will give way to intervals
of clouds and sunshine
and highs around 50
degrees.
Milder air will move in
on Sunday, on a southwest
flow ahead of a low in the
Ohio Valley; with partly
sunny skies, high temperatures
will be in the mid-
50s.
An upper-level trough
over western New York will
bring occasional shower on
Monday morning then some
partial sunshine in the afternoon;
highs in the low
50s.
With colder air aloft,
we’ll see variable cloudiness
and breaks of sunshie
on Tuesday, and a few
showers; highs around 45
to 50 degrees.
On Saturday, severe
thunderstorms and several
tornadoes ripped across the
Deep South, and this was a
key indicator for dry, sunny
weather in Otsego County.
Although most local
weather forecasts called for
showers, skies were partly
to mostly sunny with highs
in the upper 60s.
After occasional showers
on Sunday, classic March
weather finally returned to
the Cooperstown area on
Monday, as a major storm
system moved northeastward
to the Canadian Maritimes,
a colder northwest
flow took over, and during
the early morning wet snow
amounted to 1 to 3 inches
over higher elevations with
only snow showers at valley
locations. Skies were
overcast with typical
upslope stratocumulus
clouds through the day, a
northwest wind 15 to 30
MPH, and highs only in the
upper 30s.
Thanks to a downsloping
northwest wind, skies
were partly sunny in the
lower Hudson Valley with
highs around 50 degrees.
On Tuesday March ended
with a spectacular early
spring day, with a northerly
flow of cool, dry air,
around high pressure centered
over Quebec. Stratocumulus
clouds in the
morning gave way to mostly
sunny skies in the afternoon,
with highs in the low
50’s. A powerful storm system
tracked eastward to
Minnesota, and heavy snow
continued in
North Dakota, where
highs were only in the upper
20’s, preventing melting
that would add to already
record-breaking
levels of the Red River that
crested at 41 feet just a few
days earlier.
Severe thunderstorms
covered a wide area along
the Gulf coast, with flooding
rains from Louisiana to
Alabama and the Florida
Panhandle.
Mark Hanok is an Otego based
meteorologist.
Weather Watch
April 2, 2009
Weather Watch
- Weather Watch
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- Weather watch The Susquehanna River level will be unusually low for the General Clinton Canoe Regatta during Memorial Day weekend.
- Weather Watch It’s really uncanny how the very dry weather pattern has continued in this area despite the succession of major storms that have moved to the west and south.
- Weather Watch Now that north has become a synonym for sunshine and south has become a synonym for rain, there’s no way that this extremely dry weather pattern can change at least for the next four weeks.
- Weather Watch March was the third straight month with below normal precipitation, and it looks like April will also turn out to be drier than normal.
- Weather Watch Temperatures were near normal in March, with precipitation around an inch below normal.
- Weather Watch On Friday a major storm will move to the Ohio Valley, while high pressure builds southward from eastern Canada. Skies will be partly sunny with highs from 55 to 60 degrees.
- Weather Watch When it’s warmer to the north and cooler to the south, it’s so easy to get into an extremely dry weather pattern in Otsego County. The weather forecast in last week’s weather column was more optimistic than other local weather forecasts, but the weather was actually much better than even we predicted.
- Weather Watch The jet stream will shift southward this week and a series of low pressure systems will move well to our south.
- Weather Watch Exactly as we predicted at the beginning of the month, it was one of the driest Februaries on record in Otsego County and throughout most of central and eastern New York. Thanks to the extreme upside-down temperature pattern with much warmer weather in Montana than in Georgia, and strong winds on Monday and Tuesday, an extremely dry weather pattern will be the theme for at least the next two to three weeks.
- Weather Watch Exactly as we’ve been predicting for the past month, this is turning out to be an exceptionally dry February - one of the driest on record in central and eastern New York.
- More Weather Watch Headlines
