Last Day of Winter:

Good Wednesday from KRBC Meteorologist Chris Whited...

* Today is the last day of winter here in the Northern Hemisphere as we will begin the vernal equinox at 12:48 AM CDT Thursday morning.

* On a side note, what a well needed rain across the Big Country, Heartland and the Northern Concho Valley on Monday night and Tuesday. In all, most areas saw an average of 2 to 3 inches while a few isolated spots approaches 4 inches. Checking on the climate numbers this morning as I am putting together my forecast package for West Texas Today show we are now +1.98 inches above normal based on numbers at Abilene Regional Airport. While we sit in the short term above normal, the US Drought monitor update on March 11th still has our area placed under a Drought Stage 2 - Severe (Agricultural) drought.

* A quiet weather pattern for the next few days as high pressure will be the dominating weather feature for our area. A warm up is in store with highs back in the upper 60s today and middle and upper 70s for the end of the week as we enter the Easter Weekend. Good Friday will be our warmest day with highs approaching 80. Clouds will be on the increase on Saturday ahead of the next cold front and system that will bring rain chances back on late Saturday, and most of the day on Easter Sunday. This mornings data runs suggest for now it looks the bulk of the rain will be on Sunday itself, but sunrise services on Sunday could be wet. As anticipated as we always see at or around Easter, our "Easter Snap" of cooler weather will arrive with the rain on Sunday so daytime highs will only be in the upper 50s and wet for the Easter egg hunts. The first few days of next week look mostly sunny to partly cloudy temperatures gradually increasing back to the 70s by mid-week.

* Looking at the models out days 7-14 we see a couple of rain chances and mostly dry and warm weather. I will stress that this far out on model runs is "voodoo land" and expect the outlook for the second week to change between now and them. This far out on these forecast models is just a "guess."

* That's it for this morning/evening. Randy Turner is away tonight so I will be back in the saddle tonight on KRBC News at 5, 6, and 10:00. Unless there is a change in forecast data, I will let this blog cover the evening shift as well. Enjoy your Wednesday and the last day of winter!