Hate the cold? Don't read this

Memo to winter: Spring begins in 32 days.

Almost unbelievably, the unrelenting winter shows no signs of letting up.

Monday the federal Climate Prediction Center projected that temperatures would remain below normal in the eastern two-thirds of the country, including Nebraska and Iowa, for at least the next two weeks.

According to AccuWeather Inc., The World-Herald's weather consultant, the cold is likely to continue into March.

“There is some hope as you get later into March,” said Ken Reeves, senior meteorologist and director of forecasting operations for AccuWeather.

Let's hope so. It's supposed to be spring by then.

Bitterly cold Arctic air may slip intermittently into the Plains over the next few weeks, but daytime highs will probably be in the 20s and low 30s most of the time, Reeves said.

“It just may not warm up a lot.”

The normal high for this time of year in Omaha is 38 degrees, and the normal low is 18. By the end of February, the normal high in Omaha is 46 degrees, and the normal low is 25, according to the National Weather Service in Valley.

Al Dutcher, Nebraska's state climatologist, said the only question is whether rain or snow will accompany the below-normal temperatures. Forecasting models vary widely.

“Depending upon what day you look at the models,” he said, “you can get very depressed or you can see a glimmer of hope.”

Dutcher's big concern is spring flooding.

“We're narrowing the window” for a slow melt, Dutcher said. “When it does get into March, it probably will warm intensely, not gradually. It would take an unprecedented cold March for us to have any chance to mitigate the flood situation.”

For now, though, the northern jet stream is ruling the Midlands.

“It's the same old thing,” Dutcher said. “There's not much we can say. It's depressing. Everybody's grumpy. It's a long winter.”

Contact the writer:

444-1102, nancy.gaarder@owh.com

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