March 2024 Summary

A very warm and wet March with low snowfall

Practically the entire first half of March was anywhere between 10 to 15 degrees above average.  This was followed by something we haven’t seen in a few months: an extended period of colder than average temperatures.  Overall, the average temperature was over 3 degrees warmer than average, making it the seventh warmest March in the history of records in the region that go back to 1914.

During those first warm days of the month the annual weather station contest ended at 2:30 pm on the 4^th when the temperature first hit 20°C (this was the earliest 20°C in the history of the region). Congratulations to Michael Greaves who guessed the exact correct time.

A couple of big storms (over 20 mm) came through on the 9^th and 14^th which helped propel the total for the month to 71.6 mm.  This is above the average of 63.4 mm and high enough to be in the above average range.

Even though there was high total precipitation, with the warm temperatures most of it fell as rain.  In fact, the amount of snowfall for March of 11.5 cm was less than half the 26.5 cm of snow that we get on average.  The puts the total for the snowfall season at 71.0 cm, also less than half the average of a typical season of 159.7 cm.

Summary for March 2024:

Maximum Temperature 20.6°C
Minimum Temperature -11.3°C
Average Daily High Temperature 7.5°C (Long term average 4.2°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -2.1°C (Long term average -5.5°C)
Total Precipitation 71.6 mm (Long term average 63.6 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1998-2022 data from the Soulis Memorial Weather Station at the University of Waterloo)