By Amy Robinson
We're looking ahead to a quiet week coming off a cool spell, and meteorologists say it's official this past spring was record setting.
Meteorologists define spring period March, April and May.
They say this year the historic heat in March, set the bar for spring to rate in the top three warmest in most, if not all areas, in central and northern Michigan, In some cities; including Houghton Lake and Traverse City, it was the warmest meteorological spring on record.
Dave Lawrence is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Gaylord. He said record warmth was felt throughout the Midwest and East Coast.
"This was primarily an eastern two-thirds or so of the country phenomenon. We had a very deep trough of low pressure across the western United States. Lots of cold weather out that way through the spring, lots of mountain snows which is great for them and their water supplies, but on sort of the downstream side of that, we had a very, very large ridge of low pressure pumping lots of warmth up from the southern states. Sort of warmth you more typically see of course in the summertime months here. But just given that highly amplified pattern, we were able to realize those very warm temperatures even sort of as we rounded out the summer months."
Lawrence said he believes central and northern Michigan will see a typical summer with longer stretches of heat, interrupted sharply by cool weather.
We're looking ahead to a quiet week coming off a cool spell, and meteorologists say it's official this past spring was record setting.
Meteorologists define spring period March, April and May.
They say this year the historic heat in March, set the bar for spring to rate in the top three warmest in most, if not all areas, in central and northern Michigan, In some cities; including Houghton Lake and Traverse City, it was the warmest meteorological spring on record.
Dave Lawrence is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Gaylord. He said record warmth was felt throughout the Midwest and East Coast.
"This was primarily an eastern two-thirds or so of the country phenomenon. We had a very deep trough of low pressure across the western United States. Lots of cold weather out that way through the spring, lots of mountain snows which is great for them and their water supplies, but on sort of the downstream side of that, we had a very, very large ridge of low pressure pumping lots of warmth up from the southern states. Sort of warmth you more typically see of course in the summertime months here. But just given that highly amplified pattern, we were able to realize those very warm temperatures even sort of as we rounded out the summer months."
Lawrence said he believes central and northern Michigan will see a typical summer with longer stretches of heat, interrupted sharply by cool weather.