March – Best and Worst

Norm Dvoskin, is a weathercaster on News 12 Long Island (New York) . . . he was a long time friend of my Dad, Ray Geiger. His comment about the month of March:

“It’s the month that you’re happy to see arrive, but even happier when it leaves!”

Of course, Norm was alluding to the fact that March can be an absolutely crazy month so far as weather is concerned. If there were ever a month that can display wild swings of the pendulum, this is it. In New York City, for instance, the temperature in March has soared as high as 86 degrees (in 1945 and 1998) and has been as frigid as 3-degrees (in 1872). It seems just when you think spring is around the corner, Ol’ Man Winter decides to get in one more wallop with cold and snow.

Sometimes, March can be more wintry than January or February. How many of us remember the year 1956, when no fewer than six wintry storms affected New England? There were back-to-back snowstorms on St. Patrick’s Day and the first day of spring that paralyzed the Boston area. If you browse through our list of 100 Most Memorable Weather Events of the Last 100 Years (2000 Farmers’ Almanac), 8 occurred during March including:

March 23, 1913 – Omaha’s Easter Sunday Tornado (94 deaths)

March 1, 1914 – Heavy Wet Snow NY/NJ – 24 inches

March 18, 1925 – Great Tri-state Tornado (Ms/Il/In (695 deaths)

March 15, 1941 – Severest Blizzard MN/ND (71 deaths)

March 6, 1962 – Great Atlantic Coast Storm 33 inches of snow in VA

March 11, 1962 – Iowa Record Snow – 48 inches of snow

March 13- 14, 1993 – Blizzard of ‘93 – 13″ of snow in Birmingham, Al. and 36″ in Syracuse, NY (200 deaths)

March – July, 1997 – Most powerful El Nino CA to FL- Rainfall 10 times greater than normal

Some northern New Englanders are probably getting a sense of déjà vu, since this winter has been particularly rough in terms of cold and snow. In Portland, Maine, for instance, more than 8-feet of snow has fallen. In Caribou Maine they have “experienced” 144 inches of snow heading toward their all time record of 188″. This part of the country has had 23 plowable storms this winter. Other parts of the country have also been hit hard, if not with cold and snow, then with out-of-season thunderstorms and tornadoes over parts of the Midwest and southeast US.

But don’t get lulled into a false sense of security . . . remember, this is March!

When Caleb we drew up our long-range forecasts (a couple of years ago) for 2008, there was a “red flag” raised for the period around March 27. He talks about a major Atlantic coastal storm. Could this deliver winter’s final blow – (during the first official week of spring, no less). We’ll just have to wait and see, although if our forecast pans out, a lot of folks are going to agree with Norm!

Technorati Tags:
march, march weather, farmers almanac weahter, spring weather