Spring Fever Warning

Get your excuses ready for skipping work tomorrow: Strong southerly flow ahead of a multiple-center low pressure area in the Mississippi valley is bringing warmer temperatures to the Washington DC region this afternoon. By mid afternoon, many locations had reached the upper 60s, but the notorious south wind effect off the Potomac was keeping the official National Airport reading at 63. Even there, however, it jumped to 67 the following hour. Here at south-facing Afternoon Blog Central, the indoor-outdoor Oregon Scientific is showing "6" for 5 out of its 6 digits.

Further south, 70s were widespread from southern Virginia across North Carolina. The regional radar is nearly totally dry as the precipitation associated with the low stretches from the lower Mississippi valley up through the Great Lakes. Included with that precipitation were some severe storms.

Temperature chart at 3pm today from Unisys

Tomorrow should see a widespread outbreak of the highly contagious seasonal malady known as Spring Fever across cubicles throughout the region. In case the Afternoon Update doesn't appear tomorrow, you'll know why. If you haven't taken your lawnmower in for a tuneup yet, now is the time; the backlog was already 3½ weeks when I brought mine on Tuesday.

There are only a handful of days in March with record highs below 80, and one of them is tomorrow. The record for the 10th was 77 in 1964. This is undoubtedly safe from being broken, but we should at least be within shouting distance.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Mostly cloudy skies tonight should keep low temperatures within a few degrees of the long-term average high for today, which is 53. There is a 20% chance of showers late at night or tomorrow morning. More sunshine tomorrow afternoon should help push temperatures into the low 70s.

Art and Science

The RealClimate blog has an interesting new post on the reflection of climate in art. It includes a discussion of the artistic license expressed by the ice depicted in "Washington Crossing the Delaware."