March was in like a Lion and Out the same way

March was pretty wild or so it seemed. The actual numbers show pretty normal precipitation both in wet and frozen varieties. Temps seemed much cooler than average and they were in the afternoon. Overnight lows were observed to be about 1º under 'normal' but daytime highs were a whopping 5º under 'normal' for the month. The month came in chilly and blustery with mixed winter precipitation dominating the weather. There was one spring-like patch but then the month ended on a cold and chilly note with wind, thunder, and mixed winter precipitation. The snow levels locally stayed under 2000 feet for nearly the whole month and dipped under 1000 feet at least 15 days of the month even finding sea level a few times.

On the temperature side of things the month had just two days with morning lows below freezing with one daily record low of 29.7º on the 16th which was the coldest temp of the month. No where near my all time low for March at 19.4º. 27 days had morning lows under 40º which is a tad cool for March. The warmest overnight temp was 44.3º on the 19th. 

Daytime highs really felt more like January with 18 days that failed to reach 50º and two that couldn't even muster 40º. There were four daily records for cold maximum temps. The chilliest was a high temp of 39º on the 12th. There were four days that managed to get above 60º with the warmest afternoon coming on the 18th with 66.1º.  

The real story was precipitation. Despite very close to normal rainfall and snowfall, March felt wet and wild. 5.34 inches of rain came down just a few tenths shy of typical for March. The frozen variety was a typical 0.60 inch a tad shy of normal. The only sticking snow fell over the 7th and 8th with about 1/2 inch on the ground on the 8th. The wettest day was the 14th when 1.18 inches fell which was one of 8 days with more than 1/4 inch of rain. March was uncharacteristically cloudy and damp with 22 days of measurable precipitation and just four sunny days. We were definitely living up to our reputation as a cloudy and soggy area.

April is starting out like March ended with mixed winter precipitation, cool temps and very low snow levels. The local weather experts are predicting a warm up of spring appropriate temps starting next week with some forecasts showing upper 70s by the end of next week. We shall see about that ;)