March 2018 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Saint Cloud Weather Summary for March 2018

March Sorely Lacking True Spring Weather

Meteorological winter ended with the end of February, but spring weather was hard to come by in central Minnesota. While there were milder periods, the temperatures only managed to warm into the 40's. And, the snow kept cominb, especially early and late in the month. The net result was a cooler than average March. The average St. Cloud temperature was 28.2 degrees, 1.2 degrees colder than average. The middle of the month featured 7 days with highs in the 30's and the relatively moist air kept low temperatures no colder than 14 for all of the last three weeks, except for the last day. Unfortunately, during this period, the coldest of the cold air remained in place in extreme northern and northeastern Canada, which would become a factor late in the month and into April.

The March snowfall was 15.4 inches as the seasonal snowfall continued its rally from more than 10 inches behind in mid-February to near average by the end of March. There were two relatively large storms, 6.5 inches on March 5-6 and 6.3 inches on March 30-31. Daily record snowfalls were tied on March 5 with 6.0 inches and on March 30 with 2.8 inches.

The two major snowstorms were wet snowstorms, so the 0.73 inch melted precipitation contained in the March 5 snowfall also set a daily record. The total March precipitation was 1.99 inch, 0.44 inch above average.