Geary County Extension Agent Chuck Otte says just as March follows February in the calendar, this year March followed February in below average temperatures. While precipitation wasn’t anything other than average, it was enough to keep things very wet across the region. March was also a month of temperature extremes. On March 3rd we had a daily high that was well below the average low for that date. Nine days later on March 12th ewe have an overnight low that was higher than the average high for that date!

The average daily high for March was 48.1, 7.6 degrees below normal. The average overnight low was 29.1, 2.8 degrees below normal. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 38.6, 5.2 degrees below normal. The highest temperature for March was the afternoon high of 72 on March 27th. That was the first time since October 29, 2018 that we had a high temperature over 70 degrees, a nearly five month span of time, much longer than we experience in most winters. The lowest temperature for March was the -1 degree reading on March 2nd and 3rd. There was one temperature record set during March and one tied. The high of 9 on March 3rd broke the record for the lowest high temperature for that date. The previous record was 17 set in 1978. The overnight low of 55 on the 12th tied the record high low for that date originally set in 1990. While it was a cold month it was not record cold. The coldest March on record was in 1960 with a monthly mean temperature of 31.3. The warmest March on record was in 2012 with a monthly mean temperature of 57.5 degrees.

Average March precipitation is 2.34 inches. Milford Lake was slightly below that with 1.77 inches. Junction City recorded 2.10 inches during the month. Through the first quarter of the year Milford Lake has received 3.89 inches of precipitation and Junction City 4.53 inches. Normal through the first three months of the year is 4.11 inches. The wettest March on record was 1974 with 8.04 inches. The driest is a tie with both 1966 and 1968 receiving no measurable precipitation during March. March also continued the trend of a snowy winter with 3.2 inches of snow being recorded. Normal for March is 3.1 inches. Season to date the area has seen 23.7 inches of snowfall, above the long term average of 17.2 inches for the season to date. With snowfall being recorded in March it made the sixth consecutive month that snow was recorded with a least one tenth of an inch being required to be measured.

While March brings us the start of astronomical spring, April normally brings us our real spring like weather, we hope! April showers should bless the area with 2.95 inches of precipitation, on average. We still can’t rule out snow however with 0.7 inches being the long term average April snowfall. Average temperatures for April start the month with a daily high of 62 and an overnight low of 37. By the end of the month the daily high is expected to be 72 with the overnight low of 48.