March 10 2016- Another new record high temperature was set in Baltimore today with a high of 80°F at BWI. This makes two days in a row with a new record, this one beating the old mark of 77°F set in 2006. I’ve seen quite a few people suggest this is a signal of some pattern or a sign of what’s to come. So I did some digging into the historical records and found some interesting numbers for March in Baltimore that might surprise you.
Did you forget?
2015 – Last year we set two record low temperatures in March on the 6th and 7th. That was after a record 6.2″ of snow fell on the 5th.
2014 – Just two years ago, we set the all time coldest temperature in Baltimore for the month. It was 4°F on March 5th, 2014. In fact we set three new record low temperatures that month.
2012 – But just two years earlier we came out of our winter without a winter and had one of the warmest March temps on record with an average temperature of 53.7°F. That was about 10 degrees above average.
But.. It wasn’t the warmest. Only ranked number 3 on the list. The warmest monthly temperatures for March date back to 1921 and 1945. That means a very long time ago we had warmer pre-spring temperatures than we have now.
1945 was the hottest March in Baltimore since records have been kept in 1870. That year, FIVE record high temperatures were set that remain intact today. The includes the hottest March day when it reached 90°F on March 29th. It was 87°F a day earlier. As for extremes, that same date, March 29th brought one of the top snowfalls to Baltimore with 21.9″ falling in 1942.
Check out this chart showing only 6 years when the average monthly temperature for March in Baltimore was 50°F or warmer. If we reach that, then we are in rare company.
The average temperature for a typical March in Baltimore is 43.6°F. That includes the lows and highs across the month.
It is true, thus month we are average well above normal temperatures. But there are still three weeks to go before the month ends, and there is not way we can sustain this heat. Yes, this warm up has sped up the projections for the Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC to bloom between March 18 and 23. That is a far cry from the late blooms in April of the past few years.
Peak Bloom 2015 and record for past 12 years
Top Cherry Blossom Photos from 2015
You can still show off your preference for snow all year: FITF Shirts And Snow Sticks
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