So, You Thought It Was Over.
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008Well, not surprising for a La Nina winter. Major snow threatens the area in mid March. Now, let’s put big snows in perspective. Over half of all major snows (8″ or more) occur after Febuary 1st. Many of them in March. I checked and found the last 6″ or more snowfall occurred on March 21 and 22nd, 1992, also a La Nina winter. So, it’s been a while. Now, let’s deal with the cold. I felt, like you, it was darn cold. But, looking at the data, it really hasn’t been that cold. What’s the catch? This month has been so cloudy, like the last three, night time temperatures have been above average. So when you add it all together, March is only 1.9 degrees below average. However, we have yet to make 60 degrees this month. Now, even though it’s only the 19th, there are no signs of any 60 degree weather until April. I figured this was probably not to unusual. So I checked. Boy, was I wrong. There have been only 11 March’s in the last 80 years that didn’t make 60 degrees. That’s 14%. I went back into the previous five times this has happened, 2001, 1984, 1980, 1970 and 1965. All were La Nina’s except 1984, which was an El Nino. So on the surface, it seems La Nina has something to do with it.
