Published: March 27, 2008 09:41 am         

Weather watch

By MARK HANOK

During the past week, we got another classic example of the correlation between strong winds in our area, an upside-down temperature pattern or “reverse temperature anomaly,” and at least several days in a row with sunny, dry weather. Once again, most meteorologists who forecast our local area were completely off target, as they overlooked the obvious key indicators that the very wet weather pattern that was in place during February and the first three weeks of March, shifted to a dry weather pattern. As we predicted in last week’s weather column, the spring season will begin with a cold, dry weather pattern. Even six days in advance when we wrote the weather column last Wednesday, we were calling for a partly sunny Tuesday, yet local weather forecasts on Tuesday morning were still calling for a rainy afternoon.

Temperatures will continue slightly below normal through the upcoming week, as upper-level winds continue out of a northwesterly direction, but we’ll see a gradual warming trend during the first week of April. The jet stream will continue just to out south, and a storm system will follow a southerly track on Friday, moving across the mid-Atlantic states. This will bring a wintry mix of precipitation to our region, including rain, sleet and wet snow, and highs only from 33 to 38 degrees. We could get one to three inches of wet snow, especially over higher elevations on Friday and Friday night.

As the storm moves east of New England, partly sunny skies will take over on Saturday, with a brisk northwest wind and highs in the lower 40s.

Sunday will feature brilliant sunshine and highs in the middle 40s.

As a storm system pulls eastward from the Great Lakes, skies will be partly sunny with a few rain or snow showers on Monday; highs will be from 42 to 47 degrees.

With variable cloudiness, we’ll see a few rain showers on Tuesday, and highs from 45 to 50 degrees.

Mark Hanok is an Otegobased meteorologist. You can visit him on the World Wide Web at http://members. aol.com/weathergazette.