March 2013 won’t be making anything like last year’s brutal grand entry. For residents of the Ohio valley, that is a good thing. On March 2 a year ago, unseasonably springlike conditions fostered an outbreak of tornadoes, including the violent Henryville, Indiana, tornado that my friend Bill Oosterbaan and I intercepted north of Palmyra.
This March’s arrival portends nothing like that. One look at the map (click to enlarge) will show you that conditions are quite different from last year. The model is today’s (February 27, 2013) 00Z run showing the 500 mb heights and surface temperatures for March 2 at 21Z. With a ridge dominating the western half of the CONUS and cold Canadian air sitting atop the Great Lakes, the picture doesn’t even remotely resemble the 2012 scenario that sent storm chasers scrambling for their gear. A few days prior to the event–that is, right about now–we were casting anxious eyes on the embryonic system with the sense that northern Dixie Alley was in for it.
I’m frankly glad that a cooler, more quiescent opener is in store for the 2013 meteorological spring. I will be pleased to get more snow, and I hope the Midwest and Great Plains get a few more good, solid dumpings before storm season arrives in earnest. Storm chasing aside, the more moisture, the better for regions that have languished under severe drought. As inconvenient as the recent blizzard was for west Texas, I’ll bet the folks in Amarillo were mighty glad to get that much snow. I hope they get more, or just water in abundance in whatever form it takes.
This March may be entering on the cold side, at least here in Michigan, but that’s okay. It is March, the month of transition. I’m equipped with a “new” used car, a 2002 Toyota Camry that is drum tight and ready to take me wherever I need to go in order to see tornadoes. It won’t be long now. See y’all under the meso!
