This weekend we find a storm system diving south from Canada and poised to bring a glancing blow of snow to Cape Cod and perhaps eastern Maine. While the exact track of the storm can still shift, the bottom line is it will miss our area.

Energy diving south on the jet stream will ignite a storm off the southern New England coastline, too far away to bring snow to Maine.

There’s certainly been plenty of snow this month. After a warm spell in February with snow cover diminishing, a renewed surge of snow has left deep amounts across all of Maine. With temperatures remaining below freezing for so many days this month, we haven’t really lost a lot of snow.

There is more than 3 feet of snow in some areas west of the coastline.

More and more light

You might notice that areas that face south and are exposed to the sun have seen the snow melting in spite of the cold air. This is because our sun’s strength is increasing and is now as strong as it would be on about Sept. 23. The vernal equinox arrives Monday at 6:28 in the morning. Starting yesterday, the daylight hours are now longer than the nighttime ones and this gap continues to grow into the third week of June. Daylight is increasing at its fastest pace of the year, a whopping three minutes a day or 21 each week. In northern Maine it’s even faster.

The gap between sunrise and sunset is growing at about 3 minutes a day.

The gap between sunrise and sunset is growing at about 3 minutes a day.

Cold is on its way out

There is another blast of Arctic air scheduled for the middle of the upcoming week. This will keep our average temperature well under what we typically expect in March.

This map shows how far below or above average temperatures have been so far in March.

I do see a change in the pattern coming later next week and as we start April. The long-range forecast has building warmth in the center of the country poised to enter New England sometime in early April. While this is a longer-range forecast, there is general agreement by the models on this, so it has a higher likelihood of happening.

Much warmer air is forecast to arrive as April begins.

If you love skiing, ice fishing and snowmobiling, the time to enjoy these sports is now, the end of winter is coming and in just a few short weeks, the great spring thaw and mud season will arrive.

You can follow Dave Epstein on Twitter @growingwisdom 


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