Most of the heat records we've narrowly missed this week date to a similar warm spell in 1990. What else did that month hold?
If you've been welcoming the warmth and didn't miss winter, you don't want to know the answer.
The week of March 12, 1990, saw a four-day streak of temperatures above or near 80 degrees. That was after a mild January and February averaging about 42 degrees. Sound familiar? This winter averaged just under 41 degrees, which ranks among the mildest on record for Baltimore.
Much like this winter, flowers and trees bloomed weeks earlier than normal. But less thank two weeks after that warm spell 22 years ago, an inch of snow was reported at BWI Airport two days in a row, March 24 and March 25. The spring flowers were weighed down with heavy, wet snow.
Could it happen again?
Meteorologist Justin Berk, an instructor at Stevenson University and formerly of WMAR-TV and WBAL-TV, thinks it could. He pointed out the similarities between this week's weather and the 1990 records on his Facebook page, predicting a "deepening trough of cold air sliding south from eastern Canada to the Eastern US."
"This doesn't guarantee a snow storm, but late season cold outbreaks can be dramatic and under represented in the modeling this far away," he wrote. I couldn't reach him for an interview.
But National Weather Service projections show a cold snap as less likely. Long-range predictions that look up to two weeks out call for continued warmer-than-normal temperatures. Normal highs this time of year are in the low- to mid-50s.
"We donāt see a pattern switch in the near future for next week to get any type of snow or temperatures that would result in snow," said Heather Sheffield, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Sterling, Va., office.
The Washington-area set heat records Thursday, with 84 and 82 degrees at Dulles and Reagan National airports, respectively. But cool easterly winds prevented Baltimore from hitting a mark of 82, set in 1990. Temperatures peaked at 73 degrees at BWI Airport and 74 degrees at the Maryland Science Center.
The slight cool-down for Baltimore won't last through Thursday night, Sheffield said, with temperatures expected to reach the mid- to upper-70s Friday.