By now you are probably aware of the significant amount of wet snow and sleet expected in our region Tuesday night into Wednesday.  Since we are approaching spring and we’ve had some bare ground off and on through the winter, your next question is probably….when will it melt???

Typically it melts fairly fast this time of the year.   Often times warm air sneaks in within a few days of a big snowfall this time of the year.  Plus even without a warm push of air, the sun angle is getting so high it readily melts snow even when the actually air temperatures are below freezing.  According to some weather models we may very well have a fairly strong warm up next week.  In fact the charts below show air aloft a few thousand feet running about +6 degrees C by Monday-Tuesday March 5th-6th as a brisk southwest wind blows in.  If some sunshine accompanied that, high temperatures would likely jump well into the 40s. 

A front and low pressure system are also projected to slide through the middle of the country around Wednesday and Thursday, March 7th-8th.  The GFS model below actually shows a good quarter inch of rain potential.  That would certainly accelerate the melting process.

GFS model rainfall projection for Thursday, March 8th

So the bottom line is, the snow won’t last all that long.  Oh we could very well get more snow off and on through March but the trend on the thermometer is definitely going to be up.  So I project the ground should be mostly bare again by the 10th or 15th of March.  In the meantime, be careful out there Tuesday evening through Wednesday with the mess on the roads.

Posted under forecast, Spring