March 2000 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

St. Cloud's non-winter was quickly followed by an early spring. The average March 2000 temperature was 37.5 degrees, almost 10 degrees above normal. This made March 2000 the 3rd mildest March in the 120 years of St. Cloud records and the mildest March in 82 years. The only two Marches which have been warmer were March 1910 (43.0 deg) and March 1918 (37.8 deg). The unusually mild weather included two daily record high temperatures (see below) and the warmest day of the month (72 on the 7th) which was not even a record (record on that date: 73 in 1987). St. Cloud also had one record mild low broken.

A big reason for the mild conditions was the lack of snow cover. Only a trace of snow was measured in St. Cloud for the month of March 2000, only the 5th time that a trace of snow was recorded in the 101 years of St. Cloud snowfall data. The last time it happened was in March 1981. Normally, March is the second snowiest month of the year with 9.8 inches.
The total snowfall for the year is still only 24.8 inches, more than 20 inches below normal. If we get no more snowfall, this will be the lowest seasonal snowfall since 1986-1987 when only 16.7 inches fell. Note also that this low snowfall confirms the statistics which estimated a seasonal snowfall of about 28 inches after having less than 2 inches of snowfall through the end of November and less than 6 inches of snowfall through the end of December.

There were no sub-zero temperatures in March, so we remain at a total of 25 days with below-zero temperatures for the season. This is the 5th lowest total in St. Cloud records (see below).

The one piece of good news was the rainfall. We picked up 1.60 inches of rain for the month, which was a bit above normal. We still need a lot more to make up from the dry late summer and fall.

MARCH 2000 STATISTICS           MAR 2000        NORMAL
TEMPERATURE
Average High                     48.6           37.6
Average Low                      26.3           17.6
Average Temp                     37.5**         27.6
Warmest high temperature         72 on the 7th
Coldest high temperature         30 on the 16th
Mildest low temperature          42 on the 24th
Coldest low temperature          7 on the 16th,17th
Daily record temperatures:
   Record Warm Highs:             66 on the 5th (old record: 57 in 1925)
                                  62 on the 8th (old record: 58 in 1905)
   Record Warm Lows:              41 on the 6th (old record: 39 in 1983)

**3rd mildest March in St. Cloud history; mildest since 1918--see below

MELTED PRECIP (in)               1.60            1.41
Most in 24 hours                 1.00 on the 8th (record, see below)
Daily record precip:             1.00 on the 8th (old record: 0.62 in 1990)

SNOWFALL (in)                   TRACE **          9.8
Most in 24 hours                TRACE on the 8th,9th,15th,27th
Seasonal Snowfall (Oct-Mar)      24.8            43.1
** tied for 2nd lowest on record--see below

		 ST. CLOUD SNOWFALL(IN)
	     OCT  NOV  DEC  JAN  FEB  MAR  APR  MAY  TOTAL
1999-2000    0.0  1.1  4.5 10.8  8.4    T             24.8
NORMAL       0.5  6.8  8.9 10.1  7.0  9.8  2.3  0.1   45.5


     ST. CLOUD TEMPS--FEWEST LOW TEMPERATURES OF 0 DEG OR LOWER
       
			COLD SEASON

	      16  1997-1998 
	      17  1986-1987     
	      22  1918-1919
	      22  1941-1942
         25  1999-2000 <--- 5TH FEWEST ON RECORD
	      29  1908-1909
	      29  1990-1991
         29  1998-1999 
	      30  1931-1932
	      30  1982-1983
	      31  1937-1938
	      31  1943-1944
	      31  1957-1958

     ST. CLOUD SNOWFALL--MARCH     (101 YEARS; AVG =   8.2 IN; SDEV =   7.4 IN)

             SNOWIEST                           DRIEST

      51.7 IN  1964-1965                  0.0 IN  1924-1925
      36.0 IN  1916-1917                   TRACE  1901-1902
      28.1 IN  1950-1951                   TRACE  1902-1903
      22.8 IN  1984-1985                   TRACE  1909-1910
      19.4 IN  1974-1975                   TRACE  1980-1981
      17.7 IN  1907-1908                   TRACE  1999-2000 <-- 2ND LOWEST TOTAL
      16.1 IN  1994-1995                  0.1 IN  1967-1968     ON RECORD (TIE)
      15.7 IN  1951-1952                  0.2 IN  1920-1921
      15.5 IN  1919-1920                  0.3 IN  1972-1973
      15.3 IN  1963-1964                  0.4 IN  1908-1909