I’ve heard it said that March can be the cruelest month in central New York. There are all those signs of spring that I’ve mentioned in past blogs but there is still winter weather to deal with. During March 2008 there were far too few tastes of spring. For the whole of the month the average temperature in Syracuse was 2 degrees below normal. Only twice during the last two weeks of the month did our high temperature climb above ‘normal’
Sometimes, though, when I think we do something unusual meteorologically speaking in Syracuse I find myself a bit surprised. It was cooler than normal this past March and when I looked at the individual days one thing popped out at me. We only exceeded 50 degrees three times and two of those times were early in the month. I figured that hitting 50 degrees only three times in the month of March must be pretty unusual so I started to dig through the climate data base. I was wrong. There have been 10 years in the past when March has had only one or even no days at 50 degrees or warmer. As recently as 2001 we went through the entire month of March without making it to 50 degrees. March 2008 wasn’t as unique or as ‘bad’ as you think!
And speaking of ‘bad’ here are some more notes about Caribou Maine. I think I’m becoming a bit obsessive about this city. We are now into April and as I write this (April 3rd) they still have more than 30” of snow on the ground! They have gone more than 50 days straight with at least 30 inches of snow on the ground. While we were struggling to reach 50 degrees in March it was a struggle for Caribou to reach 40 degrees. They did it on only two occasions in March.
Next week there probably won’t be a post from me. I will be traveling to where it is warmer—Atlanta and I will be taking my golf clubs with me. I’ll see if I can bring back some mild weather with me.
