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Northeast Regional Climate Center |
March was consistently warm across the Northeast with an overall temperature departure of 2.4 degrees. All 12 states in the region were above average in temperature but there was a clear division between inland and coastal states. New York, New Hampshire and Vermont were all more than 3 degrees above normal this month. That puts March 2004 among the twenty warmest on record for these three states but not nearly warm enough to eclipse their individual records for warmest March, all set back in 1946. Along the coast temperatures were not as abnormally warm but still a degree or more above average. Maine was 1.3 degrees above normal this March and the only state with a below freezing average temperature. The last time that happened was March of 2000. The year 2000 was also the most recent year that March was warmer than this March's regional average of 37.1 degrees.
Measurements of rain and the water-equivalent of snow varied more than two inches across the region, averaging out to 0.62 inches below normal. Delaware and Maryland were both more than an inch below normal, but the by far driest state this month was Maine. With a monthly total of only 1.64 inches, Maine received about an inch less than any other state in the region and was the only state that measured less than 50% of the normal amount of precipitation. The shortage of rain in Maine and further south along the coast was due partly to a lack of coastal systems that usually dump rain and snow along the Eastern Seaboard this time of year. The general storm track took most systems north on the western side of the Appalachains. The more western storm track also helped account for rain totals in West Virginia - the only state above normal this month. This March's regional average of 2.89 inches makes it the driest March since 1995.
Monthly Summary of State Temperature and Precipitation Averages.
