Is spring coming?
<span>March definitely roared in like a lion this week as a late-season storm - nicknamed "Winter Storm Thor" by The Weather Channel - brought snow, ice and sleet to a region already weary of winter.</span>
<span>But with temperatures forecasted to be in the 60s for part of next week, some have questioned whether the storm was winter's last gasp of the season.</span>
<span>A gradual warmup this weekend will lead to a high of 60 degrees on Wednesday with a RealFeel temperature of 73, according to AccuWeather.com.</span>
<span>"I always hesitate to say anything is a season's last gasp," said Jon Carney, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's St. Louis office. "A few years back, we thought summer was over and somebody mentioned that in the forecast discussion and then we had record heat in August."</span>
<span>Carney said meteorologists can't rule out winter until the middle of April.</span>
<span>"We've had a few fairly big snowstorms in mid-to-late March," he said. "Let's not rule out winter just yet."</span>
<span>Carney said March brings warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico that leads to instability in the atmosphere of the region.</span>
<span>"We seem to get them once every two or three years down here in terms of what we'd put a Winter Storm Warning out for," he said about March snowstorms. "You start to get some more Gulf moisture and we'll get thundersnow and stuff like that."</span>
<span>With the spring forward in time change, the change in seasons is expected.</span>
<span>"This time of year, the weather patterns are changing," Carney added. "We're moving from winter into spring.</span>
<span>"Model performance further out from the first few days is pretty iffy."</span>
<span>AccuWeather.com, which The Herald Tribune's parent company GateHouse Media partners with, predicted a more active severe weather season compared to previous years in its Spring 2015 forecast.</span>
<span>On average, the website reported, roughly 1,300 tornadoes hit the U.S. every year. Since 2012, the country has averaged around 900 per year.</span>
<span>Randolph County Sheriff Shannon Wolff said five vehicle accidents were attributed to the weather conditions during Winter Storm Thor's fury on Wednesday.</span>
<span>A sixth possible weather-related accident occurred early Thursday morning when a vehicle left the roadway near the Lone Eagle Coal Dock on Route 3 south of Chester.</span>
<span>Of the accidents, all but two involved traffic crashes. The two that weren't involved vehicles that had left the roadway due to road conditions.</span>
<span>"One (accident) was at Route 150 near Bremen," Wolff said. "One was on Eden Road in Sparta. One was on Wine Hill Road. One was on Route 3 near Evansville and one was a rollover on Zeigler Mine Road.</span>
<span>"Other than that, (the day) was pretty smooth."</span>
<span>Elsewhere in the region, Winter Storm Thor caused a temporary closure of Route 149 west of Murphysboro near Moonlight Road, where four tractor-trailers jackknifed attempting to navigate the steep uphill S-curve.</span>