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A temperature anomaly forecast for Friday afternoon shows a familiar pattern: Hot in the west and cold in the east.

(Climate Reanalyzer)

Well, at least New Jersey got a taste of what spring weather is supposed to feel like.

After a few weeks of relatively warm weather, temperatures have once again fallen below normal across the Garden State - something that isn't likely to change significantly anytime soon.

The cold is, of course, no comparison to what the state experienced in February, when parts of the state dropped to nearly 20 below zero, but that's of little solace to those in Northern New Jersey who saw snowflakes fly Thursday.

If a chill in the air seems familiar, it's because New Jersey has more or less been locked in the same pattern for the last year and a half or more.

"What we've basically seen for nearly the last two years is that the ridge in the west and a trough in the east," said David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University. "And that's producing the record heat in the west and keeping things predominantly cold here."

While the pattern has relaxed at times, such as during the last few weeks, it has more or less been in place since the fall of 2013, according to Robinson. It's produced one of the cooler long-term periods in New Jersey in many years and, unfortunately for those hoping for a quick transition to summer, doesn't appear as though it's going to shift in the foreseeable future.

"As long as we're stuck in this pattern I don't really anticipate we'll be getting into the 70s, which is what you would like to see for this time of spring," said Brian Marmo, a meteorologist at WeatherWorks in Hackettstown. "I don't think the eastern part of the country will be favored for warmer weather through the middle of May."

While what is occurring is simple, why it is occurring is a bit more complicated.

The clearest signal for our unseasonable chill can be traced to the waters off the Pacific Coast. Robinson said the pattern of low-pressure systems across the Pacific Ocean has produced consistently warm water along the west coast of the United States.

That has helped amplify and lock in place a ridge of high pressure across the western half of the country - the chief culprit in California's historic drought.

Where there's a ridge, a trough often follows, in this case across the eastern United States. It blocks the flow of warmer air from the south and allows cooler air to filter in from Canada.

The end result is New Jersey has been one of the coldest places on the planet (compared to normal) several times over the last two years.

Other factors may be contributing as well. Circulation patterns over the North Atlantic Ocean are favorable for the formation of a trough over the east and some believe Rutgers University researcher Jennifer Francis' theory that Arctic ice loss is contributing to kinks in the jet stream may also be having an impact.

"The 'warm blobs' of water you're seeing in the Pacific may also be associated with decadal tendencies in circulation," Robinson said. "So it may have something to do with the natural internal dynamics of the Pacific Ocean."

Does this mean climate change and global warming have been debunked? Hardly.

The northeastern United States has been a cold point on a planet that's been boiling. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced that March was the warmest on the globe in more than 130 years of records, capping what has been the warmest 12-month interval in recorded history as well.

"While the majority of the planet's lands and oceans cook, we're chilling in the east," Robinson said. "What's interesting is how persistent it's been."