Winter’s Finale

Two down and eight to go! Well, as far as our annual allotment of TC Top 10ers is concerned; This after a scintillating day of golden sunshine in a sapphire setting; A day chock full of warm and gentle breezes that sweetly caressed the landscape. A March masterpiece that put the finishing touches on our last painful memory of the harsh winter of 2009.

Now we await the arrival of gusty rain showers on Thursday morning as winter’s finale sends one last polar cold front our way.

So after a warm night (with tree pollen levels unusually high for so early in the season) with temperatures not far from 60, a band of frisky squalls will cross the region first thing Thursday morning.

Construction workers and landscapers check with Marina for the latest look at 3D Doppler, but keep in mind the rain shield will be less than 100 miles wide and will be moving at about 30 miles per hour. That tells me there will be 3 hours of rain tops on Thursday, mainly between 7 and noon.

The farther west you live the earlier the rain will arrive (5 AM Vanceburg-Jackson OH) and naturally the quicker it will be gone (by 9 AM) along the Ohio River, and as late as noon in Charleston and the Coalfields.

By afternoon, a cooling northerly breeze will set in announcing the arrival of one last cold winter air mass. In Texas such breezes are appropriately called Blue Northers for the refreshingly crisp air and stunningly blue skies that follow.

Indeed, by Friday morning, air temperatures will be below freezing and the sky when it does clear will be Tar Heel blue! (Editor’s note: I do not have North Carolina on my draw sheet, gag!).

One fly in the ointment comes Friday morning as that north breeze runs upslope from Lake Erie into our hills. In winter, that’s a snow maker for the mountains with flurries in the Lowlands.

Still by that time it will be spring, so we will need to see if we get a dusting of snow or just a few flurries. Either way that sharp shot of late season cold air will make spring’s debut (spring arrives officially at 7:44 AM with flurries around) feel rather chilly.

My hunch says the low mountains (Summersville, Richwood, Webster Springs, Buckhannon, Elkins) get an inch of snow while the ski lodges (from Snowshoe to Canaan to Wisp) get as much as 3 inches.

As for the weekend, frosty morns suggest early tee times are worthless (nobody goes off before Jack Frost), but afternoons chock full of blue skies should feature a pleasant fall feel to the air.

One final note, ministers planning your Easter services, your Easter Sundial features Saturday sunset at 8 and Easter Sunrise at 7.