The coming spring could rank among the top-ten warmest on record, but that warmth isn’t expected to be as widespread or as extreme as last year, according to AccuWeather.com’s long-range forecast team.

Winter weather is likely to hold on longest — into March — across the Northeast and Northwest, while another warm spring is expected across the Plains and Rockies, the forecasters said.

“The core of warmth for the spring is going to center itself in the dry areas, the western Plains, east-central Rockies, maybe extending down into the Southwest mid- to late-season,” said Paul Pastelok, leader of the AccuWeather.com long-range forecasting team.

Winter storms may impact the Northeast into March, but snowfall will be accompanied by seasonable cold, rather than the arctic chill that gripped the region in January, the forecasters said.

“Temperatures may be near to slightly below normal in the Northeast during February and March. While the spring will start out cooler and unsettled in the Northeast, milder weather may arrive by April and May,” they said.

Forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI) have also said they expect February to be colder than normal in the Northeast and much of the rest of the country, with warmer-than-normal temperatures likely to dominate in March and April (see Daily GPI, Jan. 23). By March, “most of the objective forecasting guidance suggests that above-normal temperatures will return to the eastern U.S., likely persisting through much of the spring,” said WSI Chief Meteorologist Todd Crawford.

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