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Northeast Regional Climate Center |
For the sixth month in a row the Northeast was colder than normal, although only by 0.1 degrees this month, a considerable improvement from January and February. This is the first such six-month trend since November 1994 - April 1995. The extreme northern state in the region, Maine, had the greatest negative temperature departure of 3.0 degrees. The most southern state, West Virginia, had an average of 45.0 degrees, giving it the greatest positive departure of 3.2 degrees. The temperature departures become smaller moving north from West Virginia and southwest from Maine, reaching zero degrees at New Jersey.
March saw 3.07 inches of rain/melted snow fall on the Northeast, 0.45 less than the average amount. This was the driest March since 1996 and also the only March since 1996 that was drier than the region's climatological mean. Southern New England actually received more than the normal amount of rain/melted snow. West Virginia really skewed the region's precipitation average this month with a negative departure from normal of 1.72 inches. With only 2.25 inches total, this was the 8th driest March on record in West Virginia. The remainder of the region was close to normal this month, generally a bit on the dry side (with of course the exception of West Virginia).
Monthly Summary of State Temperature and Precipitation Averages.
