March is a fickle month. Sometimes lots of snow, sometimes rain. And very cold and warm temperatures.
The photo I include with this story depicts the snow storm of March 13th. The nor’ easter deposited anywhere from 6” to nearly 3’ of a heavy, very wet snow on the Berkshires, depending on your location. Despite the heavy snow, the roads were pretty free of snow at my location, because the temperatures never dipped to 32 and below. So, the snow contained a lot of water. The formula normally is one inch of snow equals one tenth of an inch of water (melted snow). This storm contained more than that.
Ironically, this storm came on the anniversary of one of fiercest winter storms of the 20th century.
On March 13th, 1993, this nor’easter that started a few days before down off the southeast coast chugged its way north toward us with very heavy snow driven by hurricane force winds. The storm stranded people from Georgia, the Great Smokey Mountains, to New England. Barometric pressure readings reflected the intensity of this storm.
Below is my record of that storm.
12-Mar-93 28 14 CHANGING 0.1 CLOUDS EARLY AM WITH SNOW SH THEN FAIR
13-Mar-93 30 17 CHANGING 26.1 GIANT COASTAL STORM CLOUDING UP WITH SNOW DEVELOPING AT 6AM AND CONTINUING
14-Mar-93 19 13 CHANGING SNOW TIL 7A THEN CLEARING WINDY BAROMETER 28.37″
15-Mar-93 28 -1 FAIR RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE
But let’s talk about this year’s March weather, which was nowhere near the cold of ’93. As fast as the snow came, it melted. So, by the end of the week, most of it at my station was gone. The accompanied chart shows the ups and downs of March is quite evident. Actually the whole winter was like that.
The figures of March showed it to be the 11th wettest with the 11th most snow.
The month was the 8th warmest even though there were no records set.
March weather statistics
| DATE | HI TEMP | LO TEMP | SKY | RAIN | SNOW | MELT | |
| 03/01/23 | 42 | 24 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/02/23 | 46 | 34 | CLOUDY | 0.19 | |||
| 03/03/23 | 46 | 27 | CHANGING | 2 | 0.33 | ||
| 03/04/23 | 40 | 32 | CLOUDY | 2 | 0.57 | ||
| 03/05/23 | 42 | 33 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/06/23 | 45 | 35 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/07/23 | 37 | 26 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/08/23 | 39 | 26 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/09/23 | 43 | 28 | FAIR | ||||
| 03/10/23 | 41 | 22 | CHANGING | 0.03 | 0.3 | 0.04 | |
| 03/11/23 | 47 | 22 | CHANGING | 0.5 | 0.06 | ||
| 03/12/23 | 49 | 23 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/13/23 | 42 | 34 | CLOUDY | 0.16 | 1.1 | 0.12 | |
| 03/14/23 | 35 | 33 | CLOUDY | 10.9 | 1.52 | ||
| 03/15/23 | 37 | 29 | CHANGING | 1 | 0.05 | ||
| 03/16/23 | 52 | 29 | FAIR | ||||
| 03/17/23 | 54 | 28 | CLQ | ||||
| 03/18/23 | 45 | 30 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/19/23 | 34 | 24 | CHANGING | 0.1 | |||
| 03/20/23 | 51 | 19 | FAIR | ||||
| 03/21/23 | 59 | 22 | FAIR | ||||
| 03/22/23 | 64 | 28 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/23/23 | 55 | 44 | CLOUDY | 0.12 | |||
| 03/24/23 | 48 | 30 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/25/23 | 38 | 27 | CLOUDY | 0.21 | 0.1 | ||
| 03/26/23 | 57 | 37 | CHANGING | ||||
| 03/27/23 | 58 | 28 | CHANGING | 0.22 | |||
| 03/28/23 | 50 | 34 | CHANGING | 0.02 | |||
| 03/29/23 | 55 | 26 | CHANGING | 0.8 | 0.08 | ||
| 03/30/23 | 39 | 25 | CHANGING | 0.5 | 0.02 | ||
| 03/31/23 | 49 | 22 | CHANGING | 0.01 | |||
| TOTAL | 46 | 28 | Mean 37 | 0.96 | 19.3 | 2.79 | |
| AVG | 45 | 24 | Mean34.5 | 2.97 | 10.9 | NA | |
| SINCE 2000 | 46 | 25 | Mean 35.5 | 3.01 | 11 | NA |
