Updraft: March 24, 2010 Archive

March 2010: Lamb rules

Posted at 8:35 AM on March 24, 2010 by Paul Huttner
Filed under: Flooding, Snow

What a month.

March came in like a lamb this year. To the delight of winter weary Minnesotans, it turns out the March lion is AWOL in 2010.

Temperatures in the Twin Cities are running 8.9 degrees avove average through the first 23 days this month. The mercury has touched 60 degrees 4 days this month, and 22 of the 23 days have featured above average temps.

The rapid snowmelt has been remarkable this month. We've gone form over 2 feet of snow on the ground in southwest and western Minnesota to bare ground in under two weeks.

Check out this GOES visible satellite loop from March 1st to March 19th. The pictures are taken daily at 2pm. Note the clouds and rain from the 7th to the 16th. The rain and warm temps decimated the deep snow cover, and sent it all running into area rivers causing flooding. The Twin Cities NWS has a nice feature story on just how quickly the snow melted this month.

GOES visible loop shows rapid snowmelt this March in the Upper Midwest.

After our brief cool down the next few days, it appears temperatures are set to soar again in early April. We should se the season's first 70s next week.

Enjoy!

PH