³ÉÈËXÕ¾

Say goodbye to winter!

The spring equinox is on Thursday, March 20, officially at 2:01 a.m. Pacific Time and highlights the start of the spring season. Given the Earth’s 23.5 degree tilt as it rotates around the sun annually, that moment early Thursday morning will be when the sun’s direct rays cross the equator from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere.

Since the winter solstice back in late December, each day has been getting longer. This is the peak time of year when each day is gaining about 3 and a half minutes. The length of each day just crossed 12 hours of daylight earlier this week. This pace will now gradually slow as the calendar rolls into April and May, reaching the summer solstice in late June with close to 16 hours of daylight.

More from MyNorthwest: WSDOT could prevent snow-related crashes at the Snoqualmie Pass

This weekend’s weather following spring equinox

We may be waving goodbye to winter, but winter weather is not going away through this weekend. A series of Pacific weather systems driven by a 150 mph westerly jet stream across the North Pacific will maintain rain and cool temperatures with mountain snow through Sunday. The jet stream is a ribbon of strong winds at an altitude around where jets fly at cruising altitude – about 30,000 feet or so.

Showers are expected to taper off Monday as higher pressure aloft builds toward the Pacific Northwest. Tuesday looks to offer some spring-like weather with sunshine and warmer temperatures.

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport hit 63 degrees on February 27 and Tuesday’s high temperature will likely top that, reaching into the mid or perhaps upper 60s – the warmest so far this year.

The latest weather outlook from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center heading into April indicates we will see near average temperatures with the odds tipped toward wetter than normal conditions.

As the calendar flips to spring on Thursday, a taste of springlike weather is set to arrive early next week.

More from MyNorthwest: Flying out this week? Plan on late night delays to Sea-Tac Airport

Ted Buehner is the ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio meteorologist. Follow him on Ìý²¹²Ô»åÌý.