Community Corner
Weather: Frosty Reality Returns, Bad for Buds
Hopefully you didn't plant flowers in your garden, as reality and typical March weather is on the march for the coming week.
Our fling with spring has done a wonder to green everything up around our region about three weeks ahead of schedule, bringing a look of late April to the region in late March. Temperatures like those over the past two weeks, which averaged closer to the beginning of May than the 20th of March, will do that to any garden, yard or tree.
Unfortunately, the calendar does win out at this time of the year, and since it's still March, one can't fully discount the potential for at least some colder air to come back.
The funny part about this chill is that it doesn't appear to be all that cold in the scheme of things—highs in the lower- and mid-50s is not too far removed from average for this time of the year (56 F). The problem is all of the buds on trees, the flowers that have bloomed in your garden, and the sensitive flowering trees that bear fruit, such as the cherry and apple.
Find out what's happening in Malvernwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Monday night's frosty setup could leave the flowering trees in a state of shock and perhaps knock the fruit out of commission for the coming year. Fingers crossed that we end up less cold than advertised, but modeling has been rather consistent and accurate in pushing this through.
The cold shot is short-lived as warmer air pushes back northeast for Wednesday, temperatures will make a run into the middle and upper 60s across Southeast Pennsylvania with mild southwest breezes.
Find out what's happening in Malvernwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Showers cross the region Wednesday night and early Thursday as low pressure crosses the Great Lakes and Northeast. That low drags another cold front through, cooling us down a bit for the remainder of the week. We could have another frosty night Friday night around here.
Another system crosses through on Sunday with a chance of showers, but as of now, neither the Wednesday nor Sunday system offer much in the way of rain.
The trend going into April is for more typical weather for this time of the year, although some warning is possible later next week. However, the trend doesn't support almost two full weeks of May weather around here. We should be a bit more in line with reality.
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Tom Thunstrom is the editor and publisher of Phillyweather.net. You can follow the site on twitter @phillywx.
