Meteorologist’s Updated Winter Forecast for Greater Battle Creek

I got so psyched up for a warm-up this weekend, so it got me wondering what the rest of winter will be like for us here in Calhoun County.

I called the offices of the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids to give our listeners an update.

Meteorologist John Kowaleski, of the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, joined me on the show today. I asked him a few questions:

• How do you rate our winter so far?
  "So far, it's actually averaged out near normal. We're actually slightly below normal, still due to the really cold weather we had in November, but we're kind of averaging out overall.  We've had some wild swings - some cold weather and warm weather mixing in."

• It seems much milder than last year anyway...
  "Last year was definitely much colder and snowier than normal because of the polar vortex, and that spilled down northwest winds from central Canada into the Great Lakes region that pretty much persisted all winter. This year, we had that polar vortex set up earlier around New Year's, where we cooled off quite a bit, but that pulled away and now we're getting a flow of air from the Pacific with milder air — and that air is expected to continue until the latter part of next week until we start to see another cool down."

• How long do you think winter will last?  Could we possibly see an early spring?
  "The general trends are for more of the same — those somewhat oscillating cold and warm spells...and as far as the hope for an early spring, I would say probably not, more likely that it will be right on time. We still are expecting near-normal temperatures right through February, March and April.  Expect spring to arrive nearly on time."