First Extensive Severe Outbreak Of Spring; Quick Arctic Bite Coming To New England

First widespread severe weather threat of the season today
in the South, especially in yellow shaded areas. Luckily,
severe weather won't be super extensive

The first widespread severe weather outbreak of the early spring season will hit a large swath of the South today with the threat of tornadoes, hail, strong winds and flooding.  

Though this will certainly not be the most intense spell of dangerous weather ever, it's the first one this yea that is affecting a pretty large area.  

There will be bigger more widespread severe events later this spring, but today's rough weather in the South is a sign of the new season. 

The largest threat for tornadoes goes from extreme northeastern Texas, through Arkansas and into western Tennessee.  Again, tornadoes won't be spinning up like crazy, but there's a chance of a few of them. 

There's a fairly serious flood threat today, especially in Kentucky and West Virginia.  Snow that melted from the mid-February Arctic blast has soaked the ground, as have rains over the past couple of days. 

Showers and thunderstorms with  heavy downpours are forecast to repeatedly grind their way through this area today, setting the stage for flooding. 

All bad news, of course. But a silver lining of sorts is this kind of dangerous weather is at least relatively common for this time of year in these areas.  We're not in bizarro world like we were in February. 

By the way, this wet and stormy weather isn't heading our way for us New Englanders, but we will have our own little problems to deal with. 

ARCTIC BLAST

Tomorrow, Monday, is the first day of meteorological spring.  That's the time of year from March 1 to May 31 in which climatologists and meteorologists regard as spring.  It just makes for neater record keeping. 

Astronomical spring starts March 19 this year. 

Though meteorological spring starts tomorrow, we here in Vermont will be entering a mini-winter of sorts. 

It'll be mild today, tonight and early Monday morning, and there might be some rain showers around overnight and Monday morning. 

The first in a series of cold fronts will come through Monday morning burst of rain showers, probably changing to snow showers before ending.  Mild readings around 40 degrees will fall below freezing by afternoon.

Another Arctic cold front will come through Monday evening, followed by strong north winds overnight and temperatures falling to around 0 by Tuesday morning. Wind chills early Tuesday morning will be in the teens and 20s below here in Vermont. 

Winds will diminish Tuesday afternoon, and by Wednesday, it will be over, with temperatures once again pushing 40 degrees in some spots.

But winter ain't over yet.  Another cold wave is forecast to begin Thursday.  It won't be cold as that shot we're getting Monday night and Tuesday, but it will last longer. 

Temperatures will stay below freezing for most of us Thursday until at least next Sunday. Overnight lows will be in the single numbers and teens during that period. 

It's OK. We all know better than to expect spring weather in early March, right?