Tag Archives: 1910

It Was Close

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Regular readers of this space will likely remember that March 1910 was by far the warmest March on record until this year.  March 1910 was not only warm locally, but throughout much of United States just like this year.  As last month was coming to a close many people, including myself, were curious if March 2012 would best March 1910 as the warmest on record in the lower 48 states.

According to analysis released earlier this week from the National Climatic Data Center, last month did end up ranking as the warmest March on record for the lower 48 states.  The national average temperature was 51.1 degrees which was 0.5 degrees warmer than March 1910.  Considering the massive urban build up in the past 102 years and that most stations now have a warm urban heat island bias, that result was not totally surprising.

Locally, North Dakota as a whole, recorded the 2nd warmest March on record and in Minnesota the month ranked as the warmest.

 

March 1910

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Temperatures have been well below average during the first week of March.  However, no record temperatures have been threatened, so this weather is not unusually cold.  The warmest March on record was in 1910.  That month began with over a foot of snow on the ground, but temperatures warmed into the 40s and 50s during the first week of the month.  By the 12th, the snow pack had melted away leaving black fields to soak up the sunshine, and the temperature soared to 62 degrees.

On March 18, the temperature hit 72 degrees.  Three days later, on the 21st, it got to 76. Then on the 23rd came Fargo Moorhead?s earliest 80 degree day on record.  The monthly average temperature of 40.9 degrees (average of highs and lows) is almost 14 degrees above the average over history and about five degrees higher then the second warmest March in 1918.