Weather pattern signals milder temperatures

Twelve of this month’s first 15 days featured below-normal temperatures here, a fact not lost on Chicagoans displeased with the persistent chill. An evolving weather pattern now suggests the cold regime is ending, but the price to be paid for milder temps is unsettled weather in upcoming days. A western U.S. storm system has begun to eject pieces of energy into the Southern Plains, one manifestation of which is heavy snow across the Texas Panhandle. Consider Amarillo, Texas. On average, that city receives 2.5 inches of snow in March, but with an expectation of ten inches of snow before the storm ends early Wednesday, Amarillo will record, in one storm, four times its entire normal March compliment of snow. It was enough to prompt meteorologist Matthew Kramar of the Amarillo National Weather Service Office to cry, “Fie! Contemptible white snowbeast...begone! Thy icy core doth reek of rank treachery.”