Marching Out
Winter. It's something we expect to see every year. Heavy snows.
Ice storms.
Cold early season rains.
Temps dropping below zero at least a few times. These are all things you invision when you talk about winter. But these are still things you can think of when you hit a transition month, like March.
Not this year.
It should come as no surprise after the relatively mild winter we had that something like this would happen. The warmest March on record.
When the NWS compiled the stats it was clear that our transition was non-existant. We went from a chilly February to a hostile March. Warm weather and intense storms marked our March.
When you start your March out with the second deadliest tornado outbreaks in the month, you know you're in for an interesting month. The March 2-3 Tornado Outbreak dropped 65 tornadoes and caused 39 deaths. One of the more interesting things I've seen came from just south of Cincinnati in Crittenden, KY when an EF4 hit that area. The NWS in Wilmington was able to capture this classic hook echo on terminal doppler, and did a nice job illustrating the anatomy of a supercell tornado:
Image from the NWS Wilmington
While the tornado was a big story, it wasn't the main story last month. Record warmth was the norm, as record highs fell, and the all time record for warmest March on record fell. Here's a comparison of March over the past few years here in Central Ohio:
2008: 40.0°
2009: 45.5°
2010: 45.2°
2011: 42.9°
2012: 55.2°
What will April bring? My guess would be more of the same. Expect a bumpy rest of Spring.
Severe Weather Stats:
Severe Thunderstorm Watches: 1
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings: 3
Tornado Watches: 2
Tornado Warnings: 0
Flood Watches: 1
Flood Warnings: 1
Heat Advisories: 0
Excessive Heat Warnings: 0
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