Spring weather forecast says warm air is 'locked up.' For how long?

As the West bakes, folks in the eastern United States will have to wait a while for a sustained warm-up, forecasters said.

"The large-scale weather pattern across the country will keep most of the heat locked up across the western half of the country through late in the month," said AccuWeather meteorologist Renee Duff in an email to USA TODAY.

Overall, she said the pattern through the first week of April is likely to be cool and wet in the East, while remaining warm and dry in the interior Southwest.

As a potent storm roars across the Great Lakes, a strong cold front will move across the eastern half of the United States in mid-March. While temperatures will briefly surge ahead of this front, cold and blustery conditions will follow with temperatures 10-20 degrees below historical averages, Duff said.

Wind chill temperatures will be even lower, especially across the Great Lakes and Northeast, due to strong winds from the northwest.