So I was siting here trying to think about what to write tonight.  I just got done having a conversation with the guys in production ( they do all the stuff you don’t see on TV!) about the NCAA brackets.  I have to say I am proud for all the teams that have made it and of course for my team, the Spartans, but wow what a shocker!

  We have a list of everyone who has filled out brackets only one person has anyone left still in the tournament as their winner! That team is Duke.  I think a few us still have maybe one or two teams in the final four but I don’t believe I have ever seen so many people who picked wrong, just like me.  That goes to show what a different year it has been in the tournament.  If Duke doesn’t make it and doesn’t win then we will have nobody that picked the correct team here at work! Guess we will see what happens.

On a few different notes more related to weather.  We saw a mild and dry weather but I was looking around Florida and found this article by the NWS office in Tampa.  Anyone I talked to, especially snowbirds, mentioned how cold a winter it was in the sunshine state.  When I was looking through this article I realized just how cold- for some cities it was the coldest winter EVER recorded.  If it wasn’t the coldest it was at least in the top 4.  Most places were in the top one and two!  That to me is just amazing.  Most of the records date back at least a 100 years if not more.  To make it more easily to understand normal averages for winter are in the mid to upper 60′s, the average this winter was close to 55, about 10 degrees shy of normal!  I guess this was not the year to take a trip to Florida for the winter.

On a little different note, here is a picture of the sandstorm that China dealt with last weekend.  A Sahara sandstorm made it all the way there causing air quality issues across the country.    For more information on the sandstorm and how it affects peoples health you can check out this article.

Quick note on the forecast: there is a storm system that has been staying to the west for the Thursday/Friday time frame.  Because of the scenario I was keeping it out of the forecast.  Models may now bring in close enough that we could see a light shower possible on those two days.  I will keep watching it, we surely could use some rain and have seen hardly any the entire month of March.

Have a great work week! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Drought, Science, Spring, Travel, Weather History, Winter Weather