Record Warm March.

OK, in case you were wondering, it is official now. March 2012 has blown by March of 1910 into the record books for the warmest March ever. As a reminder and as we have been pointing out all along, March 1910 and March 2007 which were ranked #1 and #2 in temperature were both followed by April temperatures that were cooler than the preceding March, the only two times that has ever occurred. Not only that, but April 2007 had a hard freeze and April 1910 had a late frost. We don't see anything like that coming our way this time around, but that can certainly change.

April will also be getting off to an extremely warm start. Light southerly winds overnight tonight and some patchy early morning fog will be giving way to lots of sunshine during the day Sunday and brisk southerly winds. The only reason I am not going warmer with temperatures on Sunday is the lack of a SW surface wind component. Even so, temperatures are expected to be topping out around the 90 degree mark which will be the warmest so far this year. By the way, the record for April 1 is 94 so we will be close to that and in the unlikely event we do get more of a SW surface wind then we may even threaten that record.

Monday will also be extremely warm with lots of sunshine for much of the day and temperatures starting off only in the mid 60s and daytime highs back into the mid-upper 80s. Gusty southerly winds can also be expected throughout the day.

A slow moving storm system will also be coming this way during the week and will spread increasing cloud cover by Monday evening and a chance of showers and storms for the overnight hours. Some of those could be severe. Tuesday into Wednesday look to be the best days for additional rainfall. Again, the slow movement of the main storm system aloft leads to additional uncertainty regarding not only our rain chances but the potential for severe storms for the Tue-Wed time frame. At this point, showers and possible storms appear likely for Tuesday with some activity lingering through the day Wednesday. Conditions should be improving for the latter part of the week.

There is the potential for yet another storm system to be approaching for the Easter Sunday weekend, but the timing on that is very uncertain at this point. So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot