Weather Rewind, March 20-26, 2011

Last week's temperatures were 3.4 degrees below average as our month long warm spell came to a resounding end after our journey to near 80 degrees late in the prior week.   While temperatures started last week on a relatively mild note (cracking 60 on Monday), cooler air surged south for the latter half of the week as temperatures were consistently several degrees below average from Thursday on.

Precipitation totaled 0.65" last week -- most of it falling on Monday with Wednesday's precipitation totals higher north of the city (where much of it fell as snow north of I-78), accompanied by a round of thunderstorms that brought small hail and sleet to the region during Wednesday evening.  

The pattern nationally saw a pretty decent shift thanks to the development of a -NAO pattern, which helped drive down colder air into the Northeast.  The South is still quite warm thanks to a ridge of high pressure over the Deep South -- a trend that will likely continue in the coming weeks.   The North and West remain chilled for the most part thanks to a rough in the West and the -NAO for the northern tier of the country.