No April Fool's joke here

The seven day forecast for Santa Rosa Beach from the National Weather Service is remarkably consistent temperature-wise. The high temperature today through next Monday (4/8) varies only from 70 to 74 degrees. One main reason for this is that the really cold air is locked up further north by the jet stream. This upper level steering current has flattened out into "zonal flow", i.e. instead of large north and south swings it is now flowing basically west to east.

One result is to keep temperatures pleasant and consistent at Casasblanca on 30A as a reminder that spring really is on the way. Another result is that the storm track for those cold early spring snow storms has moved way up north. Check out this water vapor satellite image from this morning as an illustration:

I've circled in yellow three major storm systems that are currently affecting the U.S. Note that all of them are moving west to east and are located along the northern third of the nation. Thus the weather here in the Florida panhandle is left to itself in a normal early spring pattern.

Confession: there is a 30-40% chance of showers and thunderstorms each day through the weekend, but when is that NOT part of a beach forecast?!! C'mon down and enjoy the advent of spring!!