From a clipper system zipping through the Northeast to a new belt of moisture drenching the Pacific West Coast, you could say March comes in like a lion this year for many.
Today
As February's door closes and March's opens, an Alberta Clipper, a storm system named for the Canadian Province it was born from, will sprint across the Northeast to start the weekend. Expect 4 to 8 inches to pile in the Adirondacks and northernmost Appalachian ridges, with only a few inches in the valleys, towards Lake Erie, and in West Virginia's Appalachian Spine. Sticking flurries could fall as far west as Wisconsin in the morning hours.
With a big ridge of high pressure splitting the Central U.S. today, no rain is expected there. Further west, however, multiple low-pressure systems will perturb the West Coast and southern Rockies by midnight.
One weak upper-level disturbance will enter over southern California this morning, spawning isolated morning showers then launching isolated drizzle, flurries, and wintry mix into the Four Corners region as it translates over toward the Great Plains. The other low-pressure areas will hold off until nighttime, intruding over northern California and Oregon with scattered light showers.
It will get a bit chilly in the Northeast and Great Lakes today as wintry air revisits. Sub-freezing highs dip as low as into the 20s from North Dakota into Maine. Some Rockies similarly will not surpass the freezing line on Saturday. The east-central and northwestern Plains, Ohio Valley, northern Rockies, and the northeastern Atlantic coastline all will jump into the 30s and 40s.
Warm 50s and 60s will arrive in the Pacific Northwest, Intermountain West, and the High Plains into the far interior South while 70s heat things up from California into North Carolina.
Sunday
The clipper throwing snow over the interior Northeast leaves town on Sunday, leaving behind only flurries of up to an additional inch or two in the region. The focus of inclement weather will push into California, Oregon, and Nevada as the day progresses.
Hefty snow showers will squeeze out over the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountain Ranges, with 7 inches to over a foot building over both their peaks and mountains in central Nevada. Outside of the sizeable snow, lesser totals build up lower in the ranges, and light to moderate showers sprinkle along the West Coast.
In the southern and central Plains, Saturday's Four Corners storm evolves into a strong yet short-lived system of heavy showers by late Sunday afternoon, drenching the region into the night.
The South, Midwest, and northern Plains will all avoid troubling weather this weekend; it seems the lion will rest in these regions.
Colder temperatures invade everywhere but the Great Plains and southern Rockies this week. Frigid high temperatures in the single-digits and 10s stifle heat in the interior Northeast under a staunch cold air mass. Highs in the 20s and the low 30s freeze the Great Lakes, central Appalachia, and the New England coastline.
More temperate 30s and 40s swath the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Northwest, while 50s and 60s give some semblance of heat to the South, the High Plains, the Intermountain West, and southern California. Hot spots to cap off the weekend will again hold strong in the Desert Southwest, Florida, the Gulf Coast, Texas, and Texas-adjacent communities. Expect 70s and lower 80s to arise, with higher temperatures leaning into the Lonestar State.
