Spring arrives Tuesday; week ahead to be chilly, forecasters say

This week, those in the Northern Hemisphere will welcome the start of spring — a little earlier than in years past.

The recent run of warm weather has made it seem that spring is arriving early this year. “Right now, halfway through the month, it’s the warmest March on record for Islip,” said Dominick Ramunni, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. “It’s been 10 degrees above normal on average, which is absolutely incredible. It certainly feels like spring is early.” 

As it happens, the vernal equinox — the day when the sun crosses the earth’s equator, and the hours of day (roughly) equal the hours of night — is indeed arriving early this year. (For those in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the autumn equinox.)

For most of the 20th Century in this part of the world, the equinox was on March 21, but that shifted to the 20th in 2008 and now, for the rest of this century, March 19 will be the first day of spring.

The last two days of winter will continue to be significantly warmer than normal, but a cold front is moving in and temperatures will be more wintry later in the week. The high on Sunday will be 59 under partially sunny skies and 50 on Monday.

Monday night will drop to 34 with more clouds.

Spring arrives at 11:06 p.m. Tuesday, where the daytime high will be 46 with plenty of wind and a low of 36. Wednesday will reach 50 but drop to 30 at night, and Thursday will be breezy with a high of 44, and down to 28 at night, forecasters said.

Friday and Saturday bring a chance of rain or snow.

“Hopefully people haven’t put away that winter coat,” Ramunni said.