The month of March has marched into the the nether. It was pretty typical of March with slightly warmer nights and slightly cooler days. It was well above average for rainfall, a bit light on snow and well shy of expectations regarding sunshine. Seriously the great yellow orb was conspicuous by its absence.I listed 5 days as sunny but I am pretty generous with what counts as "sunny". I figure that it is sunny enough if 6 hours of the day basks in the golden rays of El Sol. This was one gray march and it spit rain nearly every day. In fact I measured at least a touch of rain on 23 days with 19 having my standard .03 inches as a minimum "rainy day".
What is really a bit odd about this March was that just ONE day managed to top out above 60 degrees. ONE! That is truly unusual for March. March is a month than can show a wide range of temperatures and usually does. I generally receive the first 70 degree day of the year sometime in March. If you check back to November 1st edition of this blog, you will see that October posted NO 70s and that is usually the last month with such a mark. As it stands now the last 70 degree day was September 28th when the merc busted out a 72.3° Holy Long and Cool, Batman, that's over SIX months with nary a 70 in sight! SIX MONTHS! Half a year! For the record, Chicago had a day that broke 80° last month. Oh and by the way, the last time I had the whole month of March blow by without reaching 70° was March of 2011. Oh wait, there's more... this is a streak of sub-70s that is now the longest I have seen since keeping records here dating to 2002. I stand at 185 days since the last 70° reading. Today is highly unlikely to bust a 70 since it's 1:30 pm right now at I just hit 50 under clouds and showers. The streak continues.
March 2017 had an average daily high of 52.91° down when measured against my "normal" of 54.68°. The average daily low came in at 40.65° up from the typical average of 38.45°. Warmest day a sunny and 60.4° on the 10th. The balmiest overnight temp occurred on the 14th under cloud cover with a 48.2° mark. The chilliest temperature I got at my station was the morning of the 19th when it was 30° under clear skies. The coolest daytime mark for March came on the 6th when the day started with a dusting of snow and then washed out with rain and a high of 43°. So March ended up with just one subfreezing temp and 19 mornings chillier than 40°. Eight days managed to get above 50° and just the one aforementioned sixty plus. March 2017 was really steady on temps all month as opposed to the more common 'battle of the seasons' where there is a cold snap and a heat wave in the same month. This was truly a bland March and it felt much 'cooler' than it was since we were not rewarded with that first warm day of the year.
On the water side of the weather we seem pretty good this season. I added another 7.32 inches in the bucket against a 'normal' of 5.52 inches. This on the heels of a soggy February that yielded 9.41 inches. There was no big storm event that pushed the rain totals up. It was a couple of wet systems and an incessant drip all month long that aided the overflowing rain pail. The only snow was that tiny little dusting of .25 inches that stayed on the ground all of a couple hours before being washed down the drain under a more typical March shower of rain. 23 days of drip and a few days of heavy downpours added up to a soggy and gray March.
April is starting out much like March with showers and relatively cool temps. Here's an April First show out the window. There is that plum tree finally flowered about a month late. There's that wet street we have seen nearly every day since January when it was a snowy street.
This is no fool my friends, Miss Spring is still in Cancun, I think she missed her flight. Come on girl, were ready for some 70s. Seriously, were ready.
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