John Wheeler: Early season heat has already made Arizona hot

FARGO — The first heat wave of the summer has already hit the Desert Southwest. All week long, the temperature throughout the lower elevations of Arizona, including the Phoenix area, have been well into the 90s. Such temperatures are about 15 degrees warmer than average for late March.

In the southern Plains, people in the Dallas experienced a temperature of 90 degrees Wednesday. It has also been warm in the Pacific Northwest with Portland, Ore., reaching into the 80s midweek.



This warmer than average weather is due to an area of high pressure into the upper atmosphere in the southwestern region, caused by the same blocking pattern in the northern Pacific Ocean that is also responsible for the cooler weather in our region. Actually, it isn't that our spring has been cool. It has not.

However, it can be argued that it has been cooler than we would expect of a March month with so little winter snow cover to melt.]]>.