Editor’s Note: The forecast below has been updated and is no longer active. Please click here for the latest weather conditions. 

(WJW) – We will see sunshine and the return of near-seasonable temperatures for the last day of the work and school week.

Find some time to get out and enjoy it! Highs in the 60s with plenty of sunshine.

The first half of April was one of the warmest on record. The second half was colder but not record-setting. In fact, the temperatures were only 2 degrees below normal overall in northern Ohio.

Here are the temperatures vs normal for the entire US – first and second half of the month.

Temperatures will improve as we head into the weekend.

Still not super warm, but near normal with slightly above temperatures for a brief time early next week (70s).

Early next week, a warm front stalls across the Ohio Valley.

Shower/storm chances are still small. More local details coming this weekend.

Here’s the latest 8-Day Forecast:

A trace of snow up to 2″ fell on May 2nd. Here are the latest snowfall occurrences in Northeast Ohio.

Why has the pattern shifted “cooler” recently? There are three reasons:

First the tropical Pacific has now shifted to a cooler phase (MJO) as La Nina is fading. Secondly, a ridge of high pressure has developed over the Gulf of Alaska with low pressure over the Aleutian Islands. Thirdly, a strong high pressure ridge over Greenland.

Big temperature swings are VERY common in northern Ohio, Meteorologist Scott Sabol did some checking. After looking at the temperature every day since the 1950s, he found it was most common in March and April.

Big swings in temperatures don’t just occur in Ohio nor is Ohio the leader in big weather changes.

The center of the country experiences big weather swings more than any other location in spring.