Twin States Weather Blog

March Madness!

* Before we delve into the ongoing weather, let's talk some March Madness. This is definitely one of my favorite sporting events of the entire year. The excitement, the passion, the office brackets - I sure wish college football would adopt some sort of playoff tournament. I was alarmed to see that the Cox Arena in San Diego was evacuated earlier because of a bomb threat. This will likely result in a delay of the first game of the day out there (Marquette vs. Alabama).

* Another sign of the changing nature of the broadcast world: The NCAA is offering STREAMING live coverage of the first few rounds of the NCAA Tournament. It's pretty cool, you can actually select which game you'd like to watch. To check it out, just go here:

NCAA Tournament Online

* We'll leave the sports talk to Lindsey and Heather and get our hands dirty with this wild and wooly forecast...

* Today: Radar shows a few showers here and there. Certainly not a big deal, barely enough to turn on the windshield wipers. But, if you're out driving, the roads will be wet - so slow it down a notch or two.

* We get a break in the action tomorrow, with cool temperatures and a mix of sun and clouds. Most locales will top out in the middle 60's as we close out the work week.

* The big rain event is still on tap for the weekend, and we're starting to get close enough to try and get specific. with timing...If we are lucky, we may be able to work in a dry half day Saturday...We'll keep our fingers crossed.

At this point, it seems like the two windows of heavy rain will come Saturday evening and again Sunday evening. The warm front will move northward Monday, as an area of low pressure starts to intensify over Oklahoma. This low will track along I-40 - and there is some evidence to support some strong thunderstorms.

The 850 millibar winds (low level jet) get up to 35-45 knots, and there will be a decent 500 millibar closed core low. While this is certainly not a "classic" severe weather setup around here, it does have some components that suggest the possibility of some strong thunderstorms. The big question is how much moisture-rich air can surge back northward. At this point, I don't think it will be enough to really get us a significant severe weather event. It does bear close watching.

* It sure looks like we'll need to ratchet our numbers down a bit for Tuesday and Wednesday. The 12z (morning) run of the GFS indicates the low will track along I-40 and deepen once it moves off the Atlantic coast. This would drag some cold air in behind the system, and we will likely struggle to reach 50 degrees on Tuesday - maybe colder. Stiff north winds will certainly make it feel even colder. The GFS even hints at the possibility of a few snow flurries as far south as the Tennessee/Mississippi state line! Stranger things have occurred - especially in March...Either way, long range evidence supports cooler than normal temperatures for much of the rest of March.

posted by WTOK Weather Staff @ 1:09 PM