The cold March of 2013
March is in the books and most people could not be happier since it was the 5th coldest since 1939 in Charlotte. That’s when they moved the official observations to the airport. The average temperature for the month was 46.1° which was 5.1° below the 30 year average. If you go back to 1878 when records began in Charlotte this was the 8th coldest on record. What makes this March seem so much colder is the fact that last March we had the 2nd warmest on record. So in the span of a year we went from one of the warmest March’s on record in Charlotte to one of the coldest. We only set one record low though of 26° on the 29th. The highest temperature all month was 79° set on the 16th. The coldest was 21° on the 4th and 4th. We had a trace of snow on the 2nd and the 6th. Rainfall ended up with 3.44” which was actually 0.57” below normal. 22
Looking ahead to April I expect things to warm up but only to about average for this time of the year. The good news about April is even below normal temperatures are warmer than the average temperature in March. The cool weather yielded 22 of the 31 days with below normal temperatures.
The rest of the Southeast was just as cold with many location measuring top ten coldest March months on record.
Rankings for March as locations around the Southeast:
Departure from normal:
March by the numbers:
These data are preliminary and have not undergone final quality control by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Therefore, these data are subject to revision. Final and certified climate data can be accessed at the NCDC – http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov.
WFO Monthly/Daily Climate Data
000
CXUS52 KGSP 011217
CF6CLT
PRELIMINARY LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA (WS FORM: F-6)
STATION: CHARLOTTE NC
MONTH: MARCH
YEAR: 2013
LATITUDE: 35 12 N
LONGITUDE: 80 57 W
TEMPERATURE IN F: :PCPN: SNOW: WIND :SUNSHINE: SKY :PK WND
================================================================================
1 2 3 4 5 6A 6B 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
12Z AVG MX 2MIN
DY MAX MIN AVG DEP HDD CDD WTR SNW DPTH SPD SPD DIR MIN PSBL S-S WX SPD DR
================================================================================
1 48 26 37 -10 28 0 0.00 0.0 0 4.3 13 300 M M 7 18 320
2 46 31 39 -8 26 0 0.18 T 0 4.5 17 350 M M 9 148 23 350
3 47 21 34 -14 31 0 0.00 0.0 0 5.6 14 340 M M 3 20 340
4 55 21 38 -10 27 0 0.00 0.0 0 4.5 13 320 M M 2 17 310
5 57 38 48 0 17 0 0.37 0.0 0 4.8 21 310 M M 10 1 32 320
6 50 31 41 -7 24 0 T T 0 11.5 25 310 M M 5 1 37 310
7 56 24 40 -9 25 0 0.00 0.0 0 6.3 16 10 M M 2 21 360
8 58 23 41 -8 24 0 0.00 0.0 0 7.5 17 10 M M 0 23 320
9 63 31 47 -2 18 0 0.00 0.0 0 4.1 12 30 M M 2 20 70
10 67 36 52 2 13 0 0.00 0.0 0 4.3 13 160 M M 7 18 170
11 70 45 58 8 7 0 0.15 0.0 0 11.3 24 170 M M 8 1 32 160
12 70 45 58 8 7 0 0.72 0.0 0 10.0 23 170 M M 6 1 29 170
13 59 33 46 -4 19 0 0.00 0.0 0 8.6 22 340 M M 2 30 320
14 54 29 42 -9 23 0 0.00 0.0 0 6.9 16 350 M M 2 24 310
15 68 26 47 -4 18 0 0.00 0.0 0 6.8 12 220 M M 3 18 220
16 79 56 68 17 0 3 0.00 0.0 0 11.5 23 230 M M 7 36 220
17 77 46 62 10 3 0 0.00 0.0 0 7.0 20 50 M M 8 28 60
18 46 40 43 -9 22 0 0.61 0.0 0 8.8 18 350 M M 10 138 24 360
19 67 40 54 2 11 0 0.00 0.0 0 7.8 18 320 M M 6 12 24 320
20 56 40 48 -4 17 0 0.00 0.0 0 7.0 20 320 M M 8 28 320
21 48 29 39 -14 26 0 0.00 0.0 0 9.0 20 320 M M 1 26 330
22 53 26 40 -13 25 0 0.00 0.0 0 4.6 13 250 M M 6 17 250
23 53 40 47 -6 18 0 0.03 0.0 0 3.1 9 150 M M 9 1 12 150
24 44 39 42 -11 23 0 0.76 0.0 0 8.2 20 20 M M 10 1 29 100
25 50 36 43 -11 22 0 0.02 0.0 0 8.6 23 280 M M 7 1 32 290
26 49 29 39 -15 26 0 0.00 0.0 0 6.5 16 340 M M 5 22 340
27 54 25 40 -14 25 0 0.00 0.0 0 8.2 17 350 M M 1 23 320
28 58 27 43 -11 22 0 0.00 0.0 0 6.4 16 10 M M 0 8 22 10
29 63 26 45 -10 20 0 T 0.0 0 4.1 12 220 M M 3 16 220
30 65 45 55 0 10 0 0.32 0.0 0 4.2 15 130 M M 10 1 18 140
31 71 51 61 6 4 0 0.28 0.0 0 8.5 22 220 M M 9 1 30 240
================================================================================
SM 1801 1055 581 3 3.44 T 214.5 M 168
================================================================================
AV 58.1 34.0 6.9 FASTST M M 5 MAX(MPH)
MISC ----> # 25 310 # 37 310
================================================================================
NOTES:
# LAST OF SEVERAL OCCURRENCES
COLUMN 17 PEAK WIND IN M.P.H.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA (WS FORM: F-6) , PAGE 2
STATION: CHARLOTTE NC
MONTH: MARCH
YEAR: 2013
LATITUDE: 35 12 N
LONGITUDE: 80 57 W
[TEMPERATURE DATA] [PRECIPITATION DATA] SYMBOLS USED IN COLUMN 16
AVERAGE MONTHLY: 46.1 TOTAL FOR MONTH: 3.44 1 = FOG OR MIST
DPTR FM NORMAL: -5.1 DPTR FM NORMAL: -0.57 2 = FOG REDUCING VISIBILITY
HIGHEST: 79 ON 16 GRTST 24HR 0.76 ON 24-24 TO 1/4 MILE OR LESS
LOWEST: 21 ON 4, 3 3 = THUNDER
SNOW, ICE PELLETS, HAIL 4 = ICE PELLETS
TOTAL MONTH: T 5 = HAIL
GRTST 24HR T ON 6- 6 6 = FREEZING RAIN OR DRIZZLE
GRTST DEPTH: 0 7 = DUSTSTORM OR SANDSTORM:
VSBY 1/2 MILE OR LESS
8 = SMOKE OR HAZE
[NO. OF DAYS WITH] [WEATHER - DAYS WITH] 9 = BLOWING SNOW
X = TORNADO
MAX 32 OR BELOW: 0 0.01 INCH OR MORE: 10
MAX 90 OR ABOVE: 0 0.10 INCH OR MORE: 8
MIN 32 OR BELOW: 16 0.50 INCH OR MORE: 3
MIN 0 OR BELOW: 0 1.00 INCH OR MORE: 0
[HDD (BASE 65) ]
TOTAL THIS MO. 581 CLEAR (SCALE 0-3) 11
DPTR FM NORMAL 148 PTCLDY (SCALE 4-7) 13
TOTAL FM JUL 1 2986 CLOUDY (SCALE 8-10) 7
DPTR FM NORMAL -146
[CDD (BASE 65) ]
TOTAL THIS MO. 3
DPTR FM NORMAL -2 [PRESSURE DATA]
TOTAL FM JAN 1 3 HIGHEST SLP 30.36 ON 29
DPTR FM NORMAL -2 LOWEST SLP 29.55 ON 24
[REMARKS]
#FINAL-03-13#
