ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – The first day of Spring has arrived, but officials at the National Weather Service warn that it’s not all smooth sailing from here.
Jeff Last, with the National Weather Service of Ashwaubenon, says we might be done with significant snow, but the danger of flooding will persist.
“Now that the rivers are so high, because of the snowmelt, any rainfall that we do get, any heavy rain in particular, would be of concern,” explains Last.
According to him, it looks relatively dry in the short term, but heavy rainfall typically picks up around April and May.
Flooding will be the main concern, but other forms of severe weather could start to pop up relatively soon as well.
“Thunderstorms will be around the corner pretty soon,” he explains. “Perhaps even severe weather as we get into May.”
In terms of temperature, it should stay mostly above freezing, but things will start to plateau around where they are now.
“For the most part, as temperatures continue to stay in the 40s and eventually into the 50’s the chance of freezing weather diminishes quite a bit,” he says.
But stranger things have happened and he reminds everyone that a bit of variance can always be expected when looking forward.
“You can still get those chilly readings well into April,” explains Last. “So keep those shovels handy, just in case.”
While a light April dusting would be a far cry from the massive snowstorm that rocked the region around that time last year.
The chances of that repeating are less than likely, according to Last.
“It was such an extreme event that it would be near impossible to forecast two-feet of snow in mid-April,” he explains. “That’s probably like a one in every twenty or thirty years event.”
