US: Could this week’s arctic blast be the last before spring?

Last week, temperatures rose well-above normal for a good portion of the country. Highs in the 70s and 80s Fahrenheit were common from the Plains to the Southeast. It may have been enough to awaken more of the winter wheat crop out of dormancy as soil temperatures rose. But that came crashing down in the Plains as a couple of systems moved through and pulled the front to the Gulf of Mexico during the weekend and into early this week where it currently sits. Temperatures behind that front turned lower and have been substantially lower than the previous week. But that is not even the worst of it. A ridge of high pressure sits off the Eastern Seaboard while another has built up in the Eastern Pacific and into Alaska. With these two features going nowhere for several days, the void in between across much of North America is seeing a deepening trough and cold air draining from the Arctic and northern Canada down into the Prairies and Northern Plains as of Mar. 8. But could this be the ...