The expression that March comes in like a lion, but goes out as a lamb didn’t apply this year as Mother Nature played a cruel April Fool’s on residents across much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, particularly the Central Jersey region.  A mixed bag of weather was the theme of the day as we had sleet then snow, and then rain before things began to clear out at the end of the day on Friday.

Areas farther north such as Massachusetts and Connecticut saw significant snowfall as a storm system that produced severe weather across the Southeast, especially Florida, which had a tornado reported in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area while other parts of the Sunshine State had winds in excess of 70 miles per hour with thunderstorms.  

Earlier in the week, there were winter weather watches and advisories issued ahead of the developing storm.  Some parts of the Garden State were originally supposed to get several inches of snow.  Big flakes of snow came down for a while across Northwestern Middlesex County, but none of it accumulated.  Temperatures at the surface were not cold enough for the precipitation to stay as snow, and stick to the ground as well as road surfaces.

The weather certainly had many scratching their heads since the official start of Spring was over 10 days ago, but over the last week to nearly two weeks, temperatures have had a tough time getting into the low 50s, which is considered normal in the Tri-State area for this time of year.  Spring, like fall, is a transitional season, and it is not unusual to have this kind of weather occur.  As a matter of fact, a significant snowstorm blanketed the Central Jersey area nearly 30 years ago to the day.  It actually postponed the start of the baseball season for the New York Yankees.

Now, a new storm system is developing in the Western United States, and it will become the focus of forecasters over the next several days as it heads eastward, and taps into the warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.  We’ll have more details on the severe weather shortly.