Spring Fever

Only in the Northland can you be ankle-deep in slush with a mild breeze blowing in your face. This week's rapid thaw is increasing hopes for spring, and the potential for significant flooding in the coming weeks.

I have been trained to avoid yellow snow, but what about brown snow? Dust from Mexico got vacuumed into our snowfall yesterday with reports of brown snow. Whatever the color, much of the snow will finally melt in the coming weeks as a fast-forward thaw arrives.

We will experience almost every kind of weather over the next 36 hours: snow, glaze ice, sleet, thunder and lightning and winds gusting as high as 60 mph. After this wintry tantrum spring arrives, with the flick of a switch, next week with a streak of 50s.

We are fairly confident that 2-5" snow will fall on much of the Northland late Thursday and Thursday night, possibly enough to shovel and plow. A much more significant storm is shaping up for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, with potential icing and blizzard conditions. It's still way too early to predict specific inch-amounts, but looking at weather models it could be quite a pile...again.