By Alex Geli and Kendal Phillips
There are things around Penn Manor High School that haven’t been very prevalent lately.
Legs. Grass. Parking spots.
According to The Weather Channel, the forecast for Wednesday through Friday shows average temperature highs of 56 degrees Fahrenheit with Monday having a high of 49, Thursday, 57 and Friday, a whopping 62. With little chance of rain on all three days, students will surely be taking advantage of of the unexpected warm weather by showing off a little skin – while it lasts, anyway. After all, it is still winter.
Expert storm analyst and forecaster from Millersville University, Eric Horst, explained the rise in temperature as “unseasonably warm,” adding, “maybe we’ll have a shot at the record (7o degrees) if the sun is out all day (Friday).”
Horst explained why the sudden increase in temperature happened in the middle of February, saying that atmosphere is going through a seasonal transition where the jet stream is “highly erratic.”
Usually the transition starts in March, but it is “not unprecedented in February.”
So Al Gore, hold your horses.
“It’s not global warming,” he said.
This heat wave will not last long, according to Horst. Wind is expected over the weekend after a 30 percent chance of rain on Friday, along with a cold front on Saturday.
“It’s back to reality,” he said, but the pattern will continue with hot spots dispersed all along the months of February and March as the transition continues.
“It’s rare that the atmosphere just flips the switch and it’s done,” the weather expert said, talking about winter transitioning to spring. So people all around the country will have to strap on their seat belts as they go on a two-month long “roller coaster ride” of temperatures until spring finally rolls around by the first week of April.
“A couple days of winter, a couple days of spring,” Horst explained. That pattern will continue to keep hopes alive for random spurts of warm weather until the rain and allergies make their debut in 2011.
So expect to see flip flops; expect to see shorts; expect to see the snow on the ground slowly diminish; expect to see more believers in Punxsutawney Phil too, because the 121-year old groundhog was right – spring might just be coming earlier than expected.