Spring Temperatures Among Warmest on Record

Umass-Amherst meteorologists are reporting record and near-record spring temperatures in the region. If the numbers are validated by the National Climatic Data Center, Worcester will have had a mean temperature of 51 degrees between March and May -- that's the highest on record since 1891. Hartford tied its record spring high of 54-point-three degrees -- reached in 2010 -- and Amherst will have had its second highest spring temperatures on record. Geo-scientist Mike Rawlins runs the Climate System Research Center at UMass. He says the high spring temperatures are not surprising given the warming trends over the past few decades.

“When you put that warm weather pattern, we have a pattern where the weather is very warm for a few weeks, you put that top of a warming climate with increasing greenhouse gases  -- you’re much more likely to break records,” says Rawlins.

But Rawlins says there's no reason to think the hot spring will lead to a sweltering summer for the region. Meteorologists look at soil moisture and sea temperatures to make seasonal forecasts. And Rawlins says this year, they're giving New England an equal chance of having a hot summer as a cool one, and the same goes for precipitation.