The winds of March

Howled today, but not like a lion---more like the last breath of our old friend winter, soon to depart. Wind gusts rose into the 30s for the first of March, and it is deliciously cool! We'll see how the rest of the month goes!

On a more ominous note, the drought seems to be continuing again. We had decent rains up to February 10th, but almost none since. Dry, dry dry! It was like this last year too, with decent winter rains and then horribly dry---our driest year on record by more than 2" (record goes back to 1948). In fact, we are now drier than we were last year at this time. Rainfall to date is 5.40". Last year was 6.29" this date. Normal is 7.49" to date. The upcoming pattern looks 'droughty' to me. I hope it doesn't last. Our last year of above normal rainfall was 2005--since then we have been more than 55" below normal. It's really quite scary.

Date...................actual..............normal................departure...................notes

March 1.............52.7 / 69.6.......48.6 / 66.1...........+3.8..........................0.02" rain
March 2.............50.0 / 63.5.......48.9 / 66.2............-0.8
March 3.............52.3 / 66.0.......49.1 / 66.4...........+1.4..........................0.01" rain
March 4.............56.3 / 68.2.......49.2 / 66.6...........+4.3..........................0.01" rain
March 5.............57.0 / 69.8.......49.4 / 66.8...........+5.3
March 6.............50.2 / 73.6.......49.5 / 67.0...........+3.6..........................0.01" rain
March 7.............40.3 / 57.0.......49.6 / 67.2...........-9.7
March 8.............52.9 / 66.0.......49.8 / 67.3...........+0.9
March 9.............56.3 / 69.6.......49.9 / 67.4...........+4.3..........................0.62" rain......last day of mid winter.
March 10...........46.2 / 63.9.......50.1 / 67.6...........-3.8...........................0.05" rain......first day of late winter
March 11...........39.9 / 61.0.......50.4 / 67.8...........-8.6
March 12...........38.7 / 66.6.......50.7 / 67.9...........-6.6
March 13...........46.8 / 72.0.......50.9 / 68.1...........-0.1
March 14...........50.4 / 72.5.......51.1 / 68.3...........+1.7
March 15...........50.2 / 71.6.......51.5 / 68.5...........+0.9
March 16...........56.8 / 78.1.......51.8 / 68.8...........+7.1
March 17...........50.2 / 70.5.......52.1 / 69.0...........-0.2
March 18...........54.0 / 81.3.......52.3 / 69.1...........+6.9
March 19...........56.7 / 83.5.......52.6 / 69.3...........+9.1
March 20...........61.3 / 73.9.......52.7 / 69.5...........+6.5
March 21...........56.7 / 74.1.......52.9 / 69.7...........+4.1
March 22...........58.5 / 87.1.......53.0 / 69.8..........+11.4...last day of late winter....new record high 90
March 23...........60.1 / 85.5.......53.2 / 70.0..........+11.2...first day of early spring...new record high 88
March 24...........63.9 / 85.8.......53.3 / 70.2..........+13.1...new record high 88
March 25...........49.6 / 72.0.......53.6 / 70.4............-1.2.....36.2°F drop from afternoon high 3/24 to morning low 3/25
March 26...........52.9 / 73.9.......53.9 / 70.6...........+1.1
March 27...........59.7 / 86.5.......54.1 / 70.8.........+10.6.........................0.04" rain
March 28...........52.3 / 63.3.......54.2 / 70.9...........-4.7..........................0.15" rain
March 29...........50.2 / 60.4.......54.4 / 71.1...........-7.4..........................0.04" rain
March 30...........60.1 / 68.9.......54.6 / 71.2..........+1.6..........................0.78" rain....29.63" (1003.2 mb)
March 31...........56.7 / 67.3.......54.9 / 71.4...........-1.6..........................0.78" rain....29.56" (1000.8 mb)

The 90 on March 22 tied the record for March, and is only the second time it has hit 90 here in March. The

Record high March 22 90, old record 85 in 1997. The other 90 was on March 12, 1967.
Record high March 23 88, old record 87 in 1995
Record high March 24 88, old record 87 in 1975
Record high March 27 88, old record 78 in 1949


Temperature drops of 35°F or more from previous afternoon high to morning low are very rare--couple times a year or sometimes none at all. Since I started my weather diary and got my equipment in 2003, I have never recorded a 40°F drop. All have occurred from November through April. The biggest temperature fall was 39.7°F on Dec 21-22, 2008.

We have never had temperatures rise 32°F or more from a morning low. The biggest temperature rise from a morning low was 31.7°F on April 17, 2007.

I'd like to see a 40 degree swing someday.

March 27 record high broken by 10 degrees! Our records were officially started on August 12, 1948, so we don't have as long a record as major cities and we do break records by wide margins sometimes. But it's been a while since I saw a record taken out by 10 degrees here.


I think at the end of the year 80s will win for highs, and 70s for lows. We will see!

Highs

40s.........4
50s.........20
60s.........31
70s.........26
80s.........8
90s.........1

Lows

20s.........4
30s.........15
40s.........24
50s.........35
60s.........12

Freezes.......6