If February Fails There's Always March...

[Coopsy]

Here is a look at some weather extremes in the UK that have occured over the years in March. So if there is no snow in February, all is not lost

1900 Very dry.

1901 The lowest temperature for the last week of March was recorded this month: -17.2C at Braemar on the 29th.

1905 Mild and wet, with winds mostly from between the W and S. There was a destructive gale across the south on the 15th, with marble-sized hail at Teignmouth, Devon. The pressure fell to 945 mbar off Northern Ireland. Thunder and lightning too. On the 19th it was 19C in Leith.

1906 Warm westerlies at first. 19.4C at Norwich, and 19C at Lowestoft, recorded on the 7th: an exceptionally early date for such high readings.

1907 Very sunny. A very fine Easter, which fell at the end of the month. It was over 21C in parts on Maundy Thursday. On Sunday 31st, 22.7C was recorded at Wryde (Cambs.). London had about 10 hours sunshine on each day of the holiday. Tunbridge Wells saw 130 hours of sunshine between the 19th and 31st.

1909 Very unsettled. There were some heavy snowfalls and severe frosts in the first half of the month. There was heavy snow in the SE on the 1st; 20 cm reported at Walthamstow (north London). THe temperature fell to -17.8C at Marlborough on the 4th. The second half of the month was mild and very wet.

1914 A wet month.

1915 Quite dry but with a notable snowfall over Scotland and the north and east of England on the 18th and 1th. 18C was then recorded in eastern Scotland on the 24th before it turned colder again.

1916 Very snowy in the Pennines, with 3m in places. A blizzard affected the east on the 27-28th. A very cold month overall.

1917 A very cold month, at 3.2C CET; only 1962 would be colder this century.

1918 22C recorded in parts of eastern England on the 23rd and 24th.

1919 Heavy late snowfall in southern England.

1920 Changeable. It was often cold in the first half of the month, with some snow. 25 cm of snow fell in the Midlands on the 16th.

1923 Generally mild and unsettled, although not particularly wet. 21C was reached in parts of the SE on the 27th.

1925 March was the coldest month of the winter.

1926 Very dry.

1928 A changeable month with some interesting extremes. On the 4th, 19C was recorded in the SE, but on the 11th, a blizzard hit the country and -9C was recorded in the London region.

1929 Very sunny. A variable month, with two outstanding icy spells. This year also registered the earliest date on which 21.1C (70F) was recorded: the 9th, at Colwyn Bay, and 22.2C, at Keswick. It has been claimed that the maximum March temperature was equalled this month, with a non-standard reading of 25.0C at Wakefield on the 29th. However, Philip Eden argues that the actual temperature was actually considerably lower than this, with nearby stations recording a still respectable 22.2C. The month was also extremely dry; the driest of the century, with no rain at all in NE London, and only 0.6 mm at Kew. It was also the sunniest March on record in Scotland (before 2003): Leuchars had nearly 191 hours.

1930 Cold easterlies at the start but then later in the month the wind changed to southerlies and southwesterlies, and it was much warmer. There were 19 cms of snow lying at Birmingham on the 15th. The coldest day of the winter happened on the remarkably late date of 20 March (-16.1C at Newport, Gwent) - a record.

1931 A very dry and sunny month, with some notable variations in temperature. -17C was recorded at Braemar on the 3rd.

1932 One of the two heaviest snowfall of the year was 6-7 March, when parts of the country had 13 cm.

1933 Very sunny. There was no cloud cover at all over the country from the 23rd to the 29th. During the last two weeks many places saw 130-140 hours of sunshine.

1934 The lowest temperature of the year happened on the very late date of 14 March: -12.2C at Braemar.

1935 After an unsettled start, it was mainly mild and dry. However, there were some cold easterly winds around the 10th, giving some snow - up to 10 cms in parts of the SW.

1937 More heavy rain and snow followed February's. Severe flooding in the Fens midmonth; and a severe snowstorm in the north on the 12th. March was the coldest month of the winter.

1938 The second warmest of the century (9.1). It was also very wet in the far NW: Kinlochquoich had a massive 252mm on the 29th.

1941 A strong anticyclone held sway midmonth, with the current dry and sunny with night fogs 11-16th. The notable winter persisted late in to the month, with a severe snowstorm in northern Scotland on the 27th (90 cm laying at Tain, Highland).

1942 It was a month with some extraordinary variations in temperature. There was a maximum on the 6th of only -3C in Birmingham. On the 8th it was -18C at Braemar, but on the 19th it was13C at Croydon. On the 22nd, a maximum of 3C was widely reported, but on the 25th, 18C was reported at south Farnborough. There was some snow, heavy in places, in the north in the first week. It was a dull month, with only 26 hours of sunshine in the first three weeks at Ross-on-Wye.

1943 Mild, dry, and sunny.

1944 A very dry month. Only 1 mm of rain fell in London (1.2 mm at Croydon, to be precise). There were some fogs and frosts at night, but also some sunny and mild days. 22C was recorded at a few spots across the south on the 26th.

1945 Generally dry, sunny, and mild: one of the warmest of the century in Scotland. There was an exceptional warm southerly spell in the last week; 21.0 at Lossiemouth in Highland. 22C at Edinburgh and Croydon on the 23rd; 22.2 at Milford (Surrey). 21C at Prestwick on the 24th.

1946 March started off very cold and snowy. A dry month. Warmer from the 20th onwards, with a notable warm spell started on the 25th, persisting into April. 21C on the 29th, and 20C was recorded in many plaves on the 30th.

1947 The severe winter continued into the first half of the month. There were some very low temperatures -21.1C at Haughall, Durham, Peebles, and Braemar, on the 4th; widespread flooding after a rapid thaw of the famous winter; ice storms, blizzards, heavy rainfall, and on average the wettest March on record (177mm , which was 300% of average). Heavy snowfall over England and Wales on the 4th and 5th, including several cms in the London area, caused more disruption. There were more readings of -20C on the 8th, including -21.1C at Braemar. Much of the country was covered in snow for the first part of the month, with drifts up to 5 m deep on the Pennines, and even up to 3 m at Whipsnade on the 9th. Warm air and heavy rain started to move in on the 10th. This led at first to a great snowstorm in Scotland on the 12-13th. It was also windy: 85 kn recorded at Mildenhall, and a mean windspeed of 38 kn at Edgbaston, both in a severe SW gale on the 16th. Flooding was particularly severe in the east, particularly the Fen country. More heavy sleet in Sussex on the 28th, as temperatures fell again at the end of the month. It was the coldest month of the century in Scotland, and the wettest of the century in England and Wales (177.5 mm, 292% - the highest percentage, too). Clearly this must be the most interesting March for weather of the century!

1948 Mostly dry and sunny, particularly in the south. It was very foggy early on. The month was however most notable for an exceptional early heatwave. The temperature reached 23.9C in Wealdstone on March 9 (by three weeks the earliest date on which such a temperature has been attained; in fact, the reading was 75F, which could mean anything from 23.6 to 24.2), but temperatures over 21C (70F) widespread across southern England on the 9th, the earliest date on which this has happened so far. 21C was reached from Totnes to Durham. Later in the month it was very warm in Scotland, with 21.7C at Strathy (near Thurso).

1949 March was the coldest month of the "winter" (which is defined meteorologically as December, January, and February).

1950 Very mild, and mostly dry. There was a warm sunny spell in the first week, with 19C recorded in parts of England on the 5th.

1952 A remarkable late snowstorm. Blizzards hit southern Britain in the last week of the month, giving a widespread cover several cm deep. 25 cm fell at Whipsnade (Beds.) on the 29th, with several cm in central London, and spreading as far north as Lincoln. There were 8' high drifts in the Chilterns. The temperature remained beneath freezing all day. The cold came with 70 mph gale-force easterlies. Villages were cut off in the SE, and it then remained cold for several days, with a slow thaw in the sunny spell that followed.

1953 Very dry and sunny. Dominated by a persistent anticyclone. It overlapped with a spell of 36 consecutive dry days in eastern England. Some places in the NE had no rain at all between 20 February and 26 March, and at Lowestoft there was no rain between 18 February and 25 March (although it was probably beaten by a dry spell in spring 1893). It was foggy at the start of the month: persistent fog for the first six days in parts of England and Wales. The pressure reached 1045 mbars in central England on the 10th.

1955 The cold weather persisted from February until the 11th. A gale in the southwest on the 23rd caused much damage to shipping. It was very sunny in the far NW.

1957 The warmest Marches overall (9.2) of the twentieth century, with mostly S or SW winds. In an exceptional mild spell, the Fohn effect (whereby winds flowing over hills or mountains lead to warming on the far side) led to a maximum of 23.3 C at Haydon Bridge (Northumberland) on the 12th, 22.2 at Elgin that day, and and 22.8 at Aber on the 11th. Even, Cape Wrath managed 20.6C on the 12th, which is a real achievement!

1958 Some exceptionally cold nights. The record low was set: -22.2C, at Grantown on Spey on the 12th, only to be broken two days later, with -22.8C at Logie Coldstone (Grampian) on the 14th, over deep snow.

1959 Mild.

1960 Quite average.

1961 Very dry in the southeast: almost rainless in places. Very warm start, withwith temperatures above 15.9C on the 3rd-6th, and a heatwave towards the end, with temperatures above 21C (the low 70s in old money) during the 14-17th - and London saw 23C.

1962 The coldest of the century. At least it was however often dry and sunny.

1963 The end of the Big Freeze. It ended gently, without widespread flooding, owing to a gentle thaw in sunshine during the first few days of the month. It still reached -16C at Braemar on the 2nd. Many places in lowland Britain lost their snow cover on March 4th - for the first time since December 26th. By the 6th it reached 17C in London. On the 2nd Cape Wrath recorded a humidity reading of only 6%.

1964 On the cool side: cold and snowy in the early part of the month.

1965 A month with some very interesting extremes. In contrast to the high maxima at the end of the month, a very low temperature of -21.7C was recorded in the same month at Corwen (Clwyd) on the 3rd, during a cold and snowy beginning to the month. This was the coldest day of the year - and an interestingly late date for this. We had to wait until 2001 for a lower temperature in March. The month began with cold NE winds, with some snow. It cleard on the night of the 2-3rd to give the low minima. There was then a notable blizzard in southern England on the 3-4th. It snowed for almost 24 hours at Heathrow, and there were over 20 cm of level snow on the Hampshire Downs and Salisbury Plain, and 35 cm in central Wales. There was even 10 cm on the Hampshire coast, although I don't remember this at all. There were 60 cm drifts in the centre of Birmingham. There was widespread traffic disruption. Then the equal highest maximum for a March day was set on the 29th: 25.0C at Wakefield and Whitby (although this record is more suspect than the 1968 one). At Whitby it was the hottest day of the whole year - this is the earliest date for the hottest day of the year at any location in the country. Wakefield is obviously the place to be in March. There were also some interesting extremes within 24 hours during this "heatwave": in East Anglia there was a range of 28C between frost at daybreak and the afternoon maximum. The possibility of such range in such a short time is one of the things that makes this time of year so interesting. The month had a sunny first half, but it was very dull from the 15th to the 21st, with only 2 hours of sunshine at Bracknell. It cleared on the 27th as pressure built, giving a sunny end to the month, with those very high maxima.

1966 Dry.

1967 An unsettled month with mainly westerly winds. It was the wettest of the century in Scotland. It was very stormy at times in the north and west. A gust of almost 144 mph was recorded on Cairngorm on the 6th.

1968 Widespread snow in Scotland on the 17th, with up to 15cm. Then all change as there was a notable warm spell at the end of the month: the equal record maximum temperature for March, 25.0C, was reached on the 29th at Cromer and Santon Downham (Thetford) in Norfolk, and 24.9C was recorded at East Dereham (Norfolk). The high temperatures resulted mainly from a warm southerly airflow. (Four days later it was snowing in London!) The record daily rainfall for the month of 164.3 mm was set at Glen Etive on the 26th.

1969 Very cold (3.3C CET) and dull. There was heavy snow across the north on 12-14th; roads were blocked in Angus and Perthshire. There was an ice storm in the Midlands and the north on the 16-18th. A TV transmitter at Emley Moor, Huddersfield, collapsed under the weight of the glazed ice on the 19th.

1970 Very cold (3.7) overall. There was a major and unexpected snowfall on the 4th, heavy enough to bring down power lines in Kent. Some parts of Northants. and Beds. reported about 40cm of snow, with the deepest being nearly 48cm near Northampton. Snow fell heavily for twelve hours across a wide part of the south. In parts of the north southeast (if you see what I mean) and the East Midlands it was the heaviest snowfall since 1947. Near Bedford 36cms of snow lay after 24 hours of snow. The snow was followed by some low temperatures, with -15C recorded. The snow covered lasted for more than a week, in sunshine. I don't remember this at all, although I must have been going to school at the time. I don't remember missing Mr Openshaw's French lessons because I was snowbound, but you never know.

1971 209 mm of rain fell in 4 days on the Isle of Man.

1972 On the mild side.

1973 Mild, dry, sunny, and anticyclonic. There were some warm days but also some night frosts. There was a particularly warm spell mid-month, with 19C reached in parts of the SE on the 23rd.

1974 Average temperature overall (5.8C). It was a mainly easterly month, and was consequently dry and cloudy. There was heavy snow in the north on the 1st, and snow in the south during the 9-12th. It was unsettled midmonth. There was a sunny warm spell at the end of the month, with 20C recorded at Kinlochewe in NW Scotland on the 31st.

1975 Famous snowy Easter. There was 15 cm of snowfall in Birmingham on Maundy Thursday, and the whole holiday saw snow cover. The cold weather persisted from the 27th into April.

1976 Generally very dry. It had a sunny start with some mild days and frost by night. It became more unsettled in the west midmonth, and very wet in the SW around there 22nd, when there was snow over Wales.

1977 A mild first half, with SW winds. 20.2C was recorded at Exeter (airport) on the 2nd, the earliest date such a high temperature has been recorded. Dry in the SE, often wet in the N and W. There was reportedly a shower of hazelnuts in Bristol on the 13th.

1978 An unexciting month: slightly milder than average (6.7). Easter was windy and thundery.

1979 A stormy, wet month, with some heavy snow in the Midlands and North midmonth. The NE was particularly badly affected in the third week. Snowstorms cut off Newcastle: five days of snow gave 46 cm of cover. 175 mm of rain recorded in the first week at Fort William: three times the monthly avrage!

1980 A cold, dull, wet month, which was sometimes stormy. There was some snow midmonth, accompanied by strong, biting easterlies on the 19th.

1981 Second wettest of the century in England and Wales, with widespread flooding. 125 mm of rain fell in Snowdonia on the 21st.

1982 A gust of 100 mph was recorded at St Abbs Head on the 3rd.

1983 Quite a dull and wet month. Cold from the 21st on, with snow showers in the north.

1984>Cold and cloudy. Wet in the east, dry in the west. Dull, with wintry spells, and very dull in the east.

1985 Mild early in the month with some rain. There was a cold, snowy spell midmonth, and particuarly snowy over the north at the end of the month. The temperature fell to -15C at Aviemore on the 18th.The maximum was only -2C at Lerwick on the 28th. There was a mild end to the month.

1986 Cold and unsettled with strong winds later in the month. The biting cold easterlies of February persisted for the first few days. There were blizzard across England on the 1st. Aviemore recorded -16C on the morning of the 1st, and over much of the south and east temperatures were beneath freeezing all day, giving the coldest March day on record in many areas. Atlantic fronts started to encroach on the 3rd as high pressure retreated to the south, and the thaw reached all areas by the 4th. We could flush our toilet again. Very stormy, with gusts of 110 mph in Edinburgh on the 20th, with people literally blown off their feet. The all-time UK wind speed record was set on the 20th, with a gust of 173 mph on Cairngorm Mountain. The Severn Bridge was completely closed to traffic for the first time ever on the 24th. A poor, windy, thundery Easter.

1987 Very cold (CET 4.1C) - the coldest since 1970, and there hasn't been a colder one since. It was extremely cold in the first half, as cold continental air covered the country. Heavy snow in central regions on the 6-7th. Drifts several feet deep reported in Staffs. There was another heavy snowfall on the 19th over the south: 30 cm on Salisbury Plain. There were some severe frosts. It became milder form the 22nd, as winds turned more towards the NW, but it was wet. It was very stormy on the 27th.

1988 Record-breakingly wet in places in Northern Ireland, and very wet across most of the country.

1989 Warm spell at the end: London recorded 19.9 on the 31st. Elmstone (Canterbury) recorded 2.07 on the 28th. A warm, sunny early Easter.

1990 Very mild overall (8.3C CET) - the mildest since the record-breaking March of 1957. There was a notable warm spell midmonth with temperatures in lows 20s C. 22.3C at Cambridge on the 18th, and 22.2 at Enfield and 22.0 at Heathrow on the 17th. I remember it was very pleasant to be able to sit out in the garden so early in the year; it was a weekend, too. Frosts at the end of the month caused cereal damage. Very wet at Fort Augustus (729 mm at Kinlochewe), but the driest over England and Wales since 1961.

1991 Dull, mild after cold start. Dense fog on the 13th resulted in a pile-up on the M4, killing ten. Dustfall of Saharan origin.

1992 Generally warm and dull. Indeed, some places along the south coast had the dullest March of the century. A cold snap with notherly winds in the north midmonth brough blizzards to the Scottish Highlands on the 13th and 14th. The maximum at Lerwick on the 14th was -3.3 (a new March record). Heavy rain and flooding in southeast Scotland and northeast England. Dry in the southwest, and wet in the northwest.

1993 Dry, warm, and sunny, particularly in the SE. On the 15th it was 19.7C at Northolt - the highest temperature in the London region in the first half of the month since 1961.

1994 Warm. Wet and dull in the west, but dry and sunny in the east. Just 1 mm of rain fell in south London, and it was the sunniest March in Aberdeen since 1929. On the 14th, a rainbow was reported as being seen over Sheffield for 6 hours, from 9 am to 3 pm, easily beating the August 1979 record for the longest-lasting rainbow, although that seems awfully long to me.

1995 Very sunny; over England and Wales only 1907 and 1933 were sunnier. Yet the heaviest snowfall of the year in southern Britain fell on the evening of March 2, particularly around Birmingham. 15cms over Wales, the Midlands, and the outskits of London. Another Arctic plunge resulted in a snowstorm on the 28th, causing disruption NE England, with the Pennines badly hit: 35 cm at Holmfirth in Yorkshire. After the snow, -9.8 C was recorded at Altnharra in northern Scotland early on the 29th. The month ended with mild SWs. There were 227 hours of sunshine at Southend.

1996 The most easterly March since 1969, and consequently the coldest March since 1987 (CET 4.5), and in some places since 1970. It was also very dull. Snow in the east on the 11th.

1997 March was very warm (at 8.4, third warmest in the CET run for this century after 1957 and 1938, and indeed since 1659), and very dry, except in north-west Scotland. Some dense fogs led to major motorway pile-ups: e.g. on the 10th four people killed early in the morning on the M42. The reading of 20.8 near Snowdon on the 11th was the highest temperature recorded so early in the year since 1948. It was the sunniest Easter since the war, and the warmest since 1989, with a highest temperature of 17C in the south on Easter Monday (Easter this year fell 28-31 March).

1998 March was overall warm (7.9), wet, and dull (but not as dull as 1986). A cold surge at the beginning gave snow over Scotland. Altnaharra recorded -17.0, the lowest reading of the winter. The night of the 29th/30th was exceptionally mild - widely 12 or 13C, perhaps as high as 15.0 at Rhyl (north Wales), following a very warm day (19C in East Anglia).

1999 Slightly warmer than average, but the coolest since 1996, with almost average rainfall and sunshine. Dry in the southeast, wet in the northeast, particularly Yorkshire, where about 120mm of rain fell on the North York Moors on the 5-6th, causing severe flooding of the Derwent. Apart from this flooding in Yorkshire, outstanding events were rare: a cold snap early on, with snow over northern England on the 6th; and warm spells in the southeast on the 17th (22.1 at Kensington) and the 31st (22.0 at Rickmansworth).

2000 Mild, dry (50% of expected rain) and sunny. A high pressure month, anticyclonic from 6th-23rd.. Snow in places in the north around the start of the month. 20C at Torquay on the 13th and -7C at Topcliffe (West Yorks) on the 19th. Very dry in the SE, with many places experiencing a drought between the 2-22. Notable pink dustfall across the south on several occasions throughout the month as a result of a major Saharan dustfall on 24-25 February. It is now sixteen months since a really cold month, and seven consecutive sunny months.

2001 A cold, easterly month - the coldest since 1996. A very cold, snowy start. After a heavy fall of snow, particularly in the north, clearing skies and no wind gave some remarkably low temperatures: -19C at Aviemore on the 2nd, and then -21 at Altnaharra on the morning of the 3rd, and a reported -22C at Kibrace (Caithness), the same morning - the lowest March temperature since 1958, and not far short of the record. Things warmed up quickly, with 17C recorded in Cardiff on the 7th. After a mild spell, there was more snow. 10 cms of snow fell on Powys on the 17th; the maximum that day at Sennybridge was 0C. There was significant snowfall in the south on the 20th, accompanied by biting easterly winds. Several centimetres on Exmoor led to roads being blocked. The SWs returned at the end of the month, with 17C reached in East Anglia. It was a very dull overall month in the south (just 66 hours in Hampstead), very sunny in the NW (170 hours on Tiree - the sunniest since 1955). Wet over much of the country, with the southern England and East Anglie getting twice the average, and places in the SE coast getting three times the average. Overall, it was the wettest March since 1988. It was dry and sunny in the NW, though.

2002 Warmer than average overall. Dull first three weeks, very sunny final week. Wet in SW Scotland, but dry over much of England, particularly the SE. A prolonged dry period started on the 20th. Some dense fog on the mornings of the 27th and 28th.

2003 Anticylconic: dry, sunny, and warm. The middle of the month was particularly sunny. The first 12 days were quite unsettled, but then pressure rose. It was 21.1C at London on the 23rd, and -8.9C at Altnaharra on the morning of the 18th. On the 17th the range at Altnaharra was from -9C to 18C - a new March record for Scotland. The total rainfall averaged 37 mm; much of the country had no measurable rainfall after the 11th, and from the 7th in parts of the SE. E&W sunshine averaged 169.9 hours, about the same as 1929; the last sunnier month was 1907. It was the sunniest March on record in parts of Scotland. The sunniest place to be was Clacton, with 206 hours.

2004 A mixed month, ending up close to average overall (although relatively cool for recent years). Cold start, with lying snow and -12C at Aboyne (Aberdeenshire) on the 2nd, cool first half, mild third week, and then cold again, but with warm end, seeing 20.6C at Rickmansworth on the 31st. Apart from places in the NW it was drier than average, and quite dry in the east. Sunny in the west and north but quite dull in the southeast.

2005 Overall slightly warmer than average, but yet another month of two halves. The first two weeks were cold with northerly winds. It suddenly became much warmer around the 14th. Snowy particular in the north and east. The winds then turned southerly. The minimum of -11.5C at Boughton-under-Blean (near Canterbury, Kent) on the 4th was the lowest in southern England in March since 1970, while the maximum of 21.6C at Wisley (Surrey) was the highest temperature in March since 1990. Slightly drier than average. The winds turned easterly for the final week from Easter on, making it very dull and foggy along parts of the east coast. It was the dullest March since 1998, but in parts of East Anglia the dullest since 1984.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Don't forget to quote the source:

http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley...er_in_march.htm

[kentish maid]

Don't forget to quote the source:

http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley...er_in_march.htm

yep i found it on the source above also

Edited February 17, 2006 by kentish maid

[Globalicwarming]

The atlantic sea keeps getting colder and colder until late march and sometimes even until early april. You should have -20 or -30 degrees cold every winter if it wasn't for your gulfstream buffert.

[Cloudburst]

Interesting! I think for me springtime is quite nice as the Wintery crap moves away and replaced by a warmer sun, wildlife and plant growth kicks back in, oh and the heavy showers of course!

[MP-R]

A perfect March I think is one where a cold, snowy February drags on into the early days of March followed by frosty morning and warm, sunny afternoons. With the exception of last year where March was generally wet and unsettled in Bristol, the previous five years revealed drier than average months.