Are you ready for March? The actual snowfall for February will go down as 17.6" of snow! It was our second snowiest February on record. Only last February ranks higher because of the great blizzard with 17" of snow. We ended up with 26.4 inches of snow for the month! So the last two Februarys have totaled 44 inches of snow. This will likely not happen again in our lifetime. You can blame a wild La Nina pattern that shows no signs of slowing down as we head into March. We are not done with the wild ups and downs and snow just yet! But let's get to some good news!
March should come in like a lamb. A couple models have highs possibly in the 60s by the weekend, but I will be conservative and go with highs in the middle 50s. Jeff Smith will certainly lose our friendly bet. He will have to wash my car if the actual high on Sunday in Lafayette hits 50 or above! I upped the ante by going for highs in the middle 50s, hopefully that will not come back to haunt me.
It is a big night at Mayflower Mill. The Powder Puff Derby night begins after my 6 p.m. weathercast. Girl Scout Pack 123 headed by Lisa Rhine will be having quite the race! I tried to talk my daughter Megan into having a tornado shaped car and she went with a high-heeled shoe. Oh well, I got over it. She showed lots of creativity with all of its sequins. I do not take credit for any of the sequins as my girls showed their creativity. Take a look below!
Here are all the winners from the race! I will post their names and times. I am still re-doing this weather blog so hang in there girls! It was a great way to celebrate leap year!
It is also a good reminder to fasten our seatbelts in March. The La Nina which has played havoc with us is showing no signs of relenting and we may have our strongest La Nina on record in March. When you combine this with building warm air to the south and west, look out! Texas may feel more like summer with a building drought while their is plenty of cold air remaining in Canada and the Pacific Northwest. These two features willl be forced to collide with the mother of all jet streams throughout much of March. What does this mean? We cannot rule out another Super Storm like we saw back in 1993.
I remember March 13, 1993 like it was yesterday. I was working at WTLV-TV 12 in Jacksonville and we had 76 mph gusts and my glasses almost blew off the roof when I was doing observations. We had severe thunderstorms bring a storm surge to Cedar Key and within 12 hours most of North Florida had snow flurries. I share this story with you because I am expecting plenty of March Madness and will post our March forecast for you here tonight and on the air. February did go down as our stormiest on record with over 6 inches of liquid precipitation. I am checking into the T-Shirts, don't worry. If you have ideas send them to storm@wlfi.com and we will go from there! See you soon and make sure to check back! I ran 7 miles today so I am certainly gearing up for March!!
Also remember that Dog N Suds opens tomorrow! It is always a great way to celebrate meteorological Spring in Lafayette. See you there.
Here is your March Outlook. Do not let our warm start fool you. We have plenty of cold air in Canada that will ride our way. Even though it will be cooler than average we will have plenty of days of 60 or above and it will be much easier to take than February. Just beware of one big super storm by the middle of the month.