It’s not something that you immediately pick out per se. In the winter, you have pretty stout features like ridges and troughs that are pretty far apart. For instance we always talk about a ridge out west, because that typically means a nice trough in the east which is what you want for cold and snow.
In the Spring you start to lose the good thermal gradients and the flow can get very “wavy,” so for example it’s totally normal to have a trough out west, ridge near the eastern Rockies or Plains, and then another trough in the east. In this example having a trough-ridge-trough means you must have shorter wavelengths. This type of flow also allows for cutoffs, or s/w’s that get cutoff from the jet and can lead to big storms. Think 4/1/97.