March rolled in with a roar and went out with a warm breeze but in between proved notable by local weather standards
In between the first day, with a high of 3 C, and the final day, with a high of 17 C, there was a plethora of wet days
In fact, of the 31 days in March, the Southeast Fire Centre’s weather services recorded 27 days of measurable precipitation at its Castlegar office.
It’s the greatest number of days with measurable precipitation during any month since local records began 52 years ago.
“A near endless stream of Pacific disturbances resulted in a very wet and slightly cooler than normal March,” said the press release from the centre.
“The total amount of precipitation (rain and snow) was 125.4 millimetres and very close to twice the amount during an average March. Only March of 2012 (145.6 mm) and March 1995 (133.9 mm) had greater amounts of precipitation,” said the monthly report.
The press release said the extensive cloud coverage in March led to the expected cooler-that-average temperatures during the month.
“The final day with any snow on the ground was the 21st, which is approximately two weeks later than normal and five or six weeks later than the past two years,” said the release. “The latest snow free date on record is April 7th 1975.”
Sunday produced the highest temperature at 17.1 C, the coldest day was March 7 at -4.6 C.