Spring has arrived, said Chris Leonardi, meteorologist with the Charleston, W.

Friday, March 31, 2000

Spring has arrived, said Chris Leonardi, meteorologist with the Charleston, W.Va., bureau of the National Weather Service.

"There are no more cold outbreaks in sight," Leonardi said. "Hopefully, spring is here to stay."

The warm temperatures and sunny skies will be a nice change of pace after the recent weather pattern, which dumped rain on Lawrence County and some snow in parts of the Tri-State Tuesday, Leonardi said.

"We had some really scattered showers," Leonardi said. "It was not really in a large mass of rain. It was very localized. It could have been raining in one block and not on another."

The sporadic rainfall was caused by an unstable weather pattern, which is expected when winter meets spring, Leonardi said.

"It’s right when the seasons start changing," he said. "Winter’s trying to hang on and summer’s trying to poke it. It’s an awesome time of year. We do see lots of rainfall in April, though."

The skies will be clear this weekend, however, Leonardi added.

"It should be beautiful, sunny and dry at least through Saturday," he said. "There’s a chance of rain starting on Sunday and probably into Tuesday."

Sunny skies will continue today, with highs in the lower 60s. Friday night will be clear and chilly with lows in the mid-30s. Saturday will be partly sunny, with highs again in the lower 60s.

And, although the rain is scheduled to return, Sunday will be warm, with highs in the mid- to upper-60s, Leonardi said.

Although inconvenient, rain is a blessing. With two mild winters and a dry summer, Lawrence County should be thankful for any rain it gets, Leonardi said.

"I think it has definitely been better in the last month or two," he said. "This month’s still been drier than normal. But I think overall we’re not doing too badly and we might get some more rain beginning next week. We’re still a little bit behind for the month of March, but it’s better than last summer and last fall."