Northeast residents express exasperation with 'ridiculous' cold weather

The first day of spring was more than a month ago, and residents in the Northeast are getting increasingly tired of the cold weather that just doesn't want to quit. Following a warm weekend, with temperatures in the upper 60s, 70s and even low 80s, a blast of cold weather greeted residents of the Northeast this past week-- and they didn't hold back their feelings.

"I feel depressed actually," Daha Alloah, a New Jersey resident, told AccuWeather National Reporter Jillian Angeline. "We're still using the heat. We've spent a lot [of money on] gas."

Brandon Hauff, a Long Island resident, took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the cold weather Thursday morning after waking up to temperatures in the low 40s. Hauff told AccuWeather that this weather has been so "strange" to him.

"This cold weather has just been strange to me... It really plays with your mind, thinking the warmth is just about here but then the cold hits again out of nowhere," Hauff wrote. "I'm personally not a fan of the cold and winter at all, I'm a summer person 100%, so I'm ready for warm weather as soon as possible."

AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski explained that dips in the jet stream have recently fueled the cooler weather across the northern part of the U.S.

"It has been the southward dips in the jet stream, like the one in place, that has allowed cold air to drain from Canada," Sosnowski said. "Spring is all about warm and chilly surges of air, but lately, it seems the chilly surges have been more pronounced this spring than in some other years."

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And with a handful of broken low temperature and snowfall records, this week's surge of cold air has definitely been more pronounced.

On Wednesday, a record snowfall of 1.4 inches of snow was set in Buffalo, New York, breaking the old record of 0.2 of an inch of snow, set back in 1931.

It had snowed in Caribou, Maine, for 28.5 out of the past 31 hours as of 11 a.m. Friday. The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Caribou shared a video of the snow on Friday morning, warning people to watch out for "slick spots on the roads" since temperatures have dropped below 32 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas.

Snow totals as of Friday morning, April 29, 2022.

Maine isn't the only area that has received snowfall during this late-April cooldown. Jefferson, New Hampshire, which is about 96 miles north of Manchester, measured 5.5 inches of snow on Thursday afternoon, according to the NWS. Early Thursday morning, 5.1 inches of snow was measured in West Valley, New York, which is just south of Buffalo.

"It's crazy the weather that we're having. This is like February weather, not going into May [weather]," Jodi Mizrahi, New Jersey resident, told AccuWeather. "My kids had winter coats on this morning...it's cold."

On Thursday, a record low temperature of 29 F was tied in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which was set in 1934.

Sosnowski explained that even though the strong late-April sun helps warm the surface of the Earth during the day, the geographical origin of the air mass is important to how it will feel outside.

"The strong late April and early May sun will do wonders during the day, regardless of where the [air mass] came from," Sosnowski said. "However, it will tend to regain its identity at night. So, a Pacific air mass might be good for nighttime lows in the 40s and 50s, but an Arctic air mass can deliver nighttime lows in the 20s and 30s."

The air mass that helped temperatures get to record low levels can be traced back to western Quebec by using a computer forecast model run by the NWS. This Arctic air mass is what helped deliver this chilly air Friday morning with some reaching the freezing mark as far south as North Carolina and Tennesse.

In New York, West Virginia, Vermont and New Hampshire temperatures dropped below 20 degrees Friday morning. Mount Washington, which is the tallest mountain in the Northeast at 6,288 feet tall, recorded a low temperature of 7 degrees.

"You know it's kind of cold coming out, taking my kids out to school and waiting in line. It's kind of ridiculous waiting for this weather to just warm up," Jose Lugo, a New York City resident, told AccuWeather.

But not everyone is ready to let go of the cold weather. One New York City resident is enjoying the cooler air so much that he wishes it would stick around all year

"Honestly, I like this weather," Edgar Aleman told Angeline in an interview. "For me, this weather is so perfect."

Whether residents like the extended rounds of cold weather or not, temperatures are forecast to rise during the first week of May. However, Sosnowski warned that another round of cooler weather isn't entirely out of the picture yet.

"Much of the first week of May should bring near- to slightly above-average temperatures, but toward the end of that week, another dip [in the jet stream] may coincide with a storm, and yet another episode of wet snow or mixture of rain and wet snow could occur over parts of the central Appalachians and northern New England," Sosnowski said.

Once June rolls around, it will be safe to put the winter jackets away, but it might be good to keep the rain jackets out. The AccuWeather summer forecast calls for a rainy weather pattern that could disrupt outdoor summertime activities.

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