No spring yet, but not worst March...(3-20-13)
I think there is nothing that turns central New Yorkers into knots more than March weather and the arrival of Spring. Maybe over analyzing a late season Syracuse men's basketball late season loss comes in a close second.Yes, spring-like weather has been sparse this March but here are a couple things to keep in mind. First, we are actually near normal in temperature for the month so far. There many cities here in the East that aren’t as lucky and are running well below normal.| City | March Temp Anomaly Thru March 19th |
| Richmond, VA | -2.8 F |
| Raleigh, NC | -4.3 F |
| Atlanta, GA | -4.7 F |
| Nashville, TN | -3.4 F |
| Chicago, Il | -4.7 F |
| Cincinnati, OH | -4.3 F |
| Syracuse, NY | +.3 F |
In relative terms, those cities are having it tougher in the temperature department. The cold down south is a much bigger deal since they are farther along into the Spring growing season. I noticed that a large part of northern Georgia, including Atlanta, was under a freeze warning for Thursday morning. I think a much of our thinking about this March is skewed by the record breaking warmth of last March when we had a string of near 80 degree weather. If you stack March 2013 (so far) next to some of the coldest and snowiest Marchs in Syracuse history over the past 30 years you can see we are far from record territory.| Year | Temperature
Anomaly | Days 50 F
or Greater | Monthly
Snowfall |
| 1984 | -9.7 F | 1 | 40.3” |
| 1992 | -4.9 F | 6 | 41.3” |
| 1993 | -4.1 F | 6 | 54.4” |
| 2001 | -4.0 F | 0 | 45.0” |
| 2011 | -.3 F | 5 | 18.5” |
| 2013* | +.3 F | 3 | 13.3” |
* Through March 19thI checked with all those years to see if all the snow might have fallen before the start of Spring but in each case there was measurable snow that fell on or after the official start to Spring. Obviously, we still have another week plus of time left in March of 2013 but it is unlikely we hit the snow totals of those past Marchs and the same thing with the temperature numbers. I also threw in March 2011 because that wasn’t a particularly cold March and we have yet to even surpass that fairly typical March.So while winter continues to hold on during the next week and we certainly have the right to complain, keep in mind we’ve seen much worse during the month of March in Syracuse.
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