Happy St. Patrick's day. May the road rise to meet you, the wind be always at your back, and may you be in heaven 10 minutes before the devil knows you're dead. The last week of March will feature NG withdrawals well into the extraction season as a cold trough in the west and a warm ridge in the west couplet persists. There is some indication it will flatten toward the end of this period, allowing the process of a warm-up in the east to begin.

This week features winter hanging on over much of the lower 48. To start, cold air remains well entrenched in the east. A frontal boundary through the SE is bringing a mixture of rain and snow from Missouri to Virginia this morning and temperatures from the central plains to the east coast and points N are 10-20 degrees below average. A developing storm exiting the northern Rockies this morning will quickly track ENE to lie just north of Ottawa, Ontario, by early Wednesday morning, triggering, at that time, the development of a new Nor-Easter just south of Long Island where it will first deepen, move a little NE, and then stall in place. Cold air will pump through the northern plains as a steady northerly flow sets up mid week, cooling all of the east to below normal through the later half of the week. Much of the snow from this mornings' Rockies storm will hit the northern plains and upper Midwest initially spreading across the Ohio Valley, Great lakes and NE late Monday and Tuesday. Along the immediate NE seaboard it should be just a little too mild for significant snow although it may start as wet snow that changes to rain. Although later in the week the main snow will remain in Ontario and Quebec, significant lake effect snow can be expected in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Next weekend models are hinting at another northeaster developing off the Virgina coast, possibly resulting in a late season snow storm for DC.