3PM Afternoon Weather Update

Good Afternoon! This morning was *PERHAPS* our last day in the 20s for this season. The low was 25° This was 14° below the normal 39° and 4° away from tying the 1879 record low of 21°.
We are actually narrowing down on our last freeze date for this season as well. Going out to the next 14 days I only see 2, maybe 3 more opportunities for low temperatures to be 32° or below. First one tonight but the next chance won't come until Friday, April 12th and perhaps Saturday April 13th. April 14th-18th looks warm. 15 year history shows 73% of the last freeze dates occurs in April. There was 2 years that had a last freeze date in March and another two in May. The average date for the last freeze is April 17th.
The photo shows a 5 years history for last freeze dates from 2008-2012. Here's the last freeze dates from 1998-2007:
1998: March 24th-27°
1999: March 28th-31°
2000: April 12th-29°
2001: April 18th-26°
2002: May 19th-32°
2003: April 23rd-29°
2004: April 14th-30°
2005: May 3rd-29°
2006: April 9th-32°
2007: April 13th-31°

Q: HOW MANY SINGLE DIGIT LOWS DID WE HAVE THIS WINTER SEASON?
A: We had 5 mornings with single digit temperature readings. 4 in January (3 consecutively) with the first occurence January 2nd. 1 in February on the 1st (last single digit low). The lowest single digit reading was 4° recorded on January 22nd. This was the coldest temperature recorded this season.

Q: HOW MANY TEEN LOWS DID WE HAVE THIS WINTER SEASON?
A: We had 2 in December (first occurence on the 22nd), 13 in January, 7 in February, and 2 in March (last occurence on the 21st). The final total comes out to 24.

Q: HOW MANY DAYS HAVE WE HAD WITH LOWS 32° & BELOW?
A: Since October 1st up until today (including this morning) we've had 121 days with lows freezing or below. 65% of the past 184 days has seen lows 32° or below. The first occurence was October 8th with a low of 31°.

Q: HOW MANY DAYS HAVE WE HAD WHERE HIGHS HAVE FAILED TO GO ABOVE FREEZING?
A: The first day the high failed to go above freezing was on November 24th when the high was 32°. From then on until March 31st, there was 5 in December, 13 in January, 7 in February, and 3 in March. The final total comes out to 29 days.

Q: WHAT WAS THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURE RECORDED:
A: Meteorological Winter was from December 1st thru February 28th. During this period of time, the highest temperature recorded was 69° on December 3rd. Interesting note, each of these 3 months featured a high in the 60s. There was quite a few warm temperatures but there was a bit of cold temperatures as well. February 15th marked a change in the weather pattern that led to a cool weather pattern lingering through all of March. The highest temperature recorded from February 15th-March 31st was 67° on March 10th.
Q: HOW MUCH SNOWFALL DID WE GET?
A: We picked up 0.2" in November, 14.8" in December, 2.4" in January, 2.6" in February, and 14.5" in March. This all totals out to 34.5". November, January & February finished with below normal snowfall while December and March finished with above normal snowfall. The normal amount for an average winter is 25.9". This is 8.6" above normal.

If you have other questions about this past winter that you'd like answered, I'd be happy to answer them.


Afternoon temperatures got up into the upper 40s. As of 3pm, the high so far is 46°. Here's a look at current temperatures around the U.S.



I'll have the actual forecast for the next 7 days up tonight.