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#