LITTLE ROCK — Weather forecasters are predicting more unseasonably warm temperatures for Arkansas this spring after record-setting warm temperatures in March.
Last month was the warmest March on record as more than 50 cities across the state — including Little Rock, North Little Rock, Fort Smith, Fayetteville and Jonesboro — set records for highest monthly average temperatures.
National Weather Service forecasters in North Little Rock and Memphis both said this week that the unseasonably warm temperatures are expected to continue through the spring.
They also said March’s warm weather and the warm weather expected for the rest of the spring have totally different causes.
“There is no correlation,” said Brian Smith, a weather service meteorologist in North Little Rock.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The record-setting March, Smith said, was caused by a “high pressure in the upper levels over us, and it pretty much blocked any forward progression of fronts we normally get this time of year.”
“We also had southerly and southwest surface winds which kept warm air over us,” he added. “Marches like this don’t come around very often.”
Smith said the current warm spring weather is occurring because “the subtropical jet stream is more northward (than usual) and there is more of a stream of moisture and warm air into the area.”
“We’re predicting a better than average chance of above normal temperatures” for the rest of the spring, he said.
Marlene Mickelson, a meteorologist with the weather service in Memphis, which monitors northeastern Arkansas, also said the remainder of the spring will be unseasonably warm.
Residents in northeastern Arkansas, however, will see a slight drop in temperatures this weekend and into next week.
“There will be a slight cool-down,” she said.
The Memphis weather service forecast for northeast Arkansas has above normal temperatures hanging around through June.
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On the Net:
Weather Service in North Little Rock: www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/
Weather Service in Memphis: www.srh.noaa.gov/meg/