March ended on record high temperatures in the Peace

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Environment Canada numbers confirm that Fort St. John came within a fraction of a degree of closing out last month with a record high temperature.

The local airport weather station post of 17.5 degrees easily surpassed the March 31 record of 13.9 degrees. That record dated back to 1942, but it missed by half a degree the all-time one day March record of 18 degrees established on the 30 of the month in 1994.

In addition, a new monthly record was also narrowly missed with a next day high of 20 degrees. But, while that was a record for the first day of this month, topping the old mark of 18.2 set in 1992, it was well short of the single day April record of 27.9 degrees established on April 25, 1977.

That was followed by a Saturday high of 16 degrees, and it marked the seventh consecutive day of double digit highs. The first five the key to a mean temperature for March of -1.3, as opposed to the monthly norm of -4.6

March was also the third consecutive month with a warmer-than-usual mean temperature in an El Nino-driven winter. January’s -10.3 topped the norm of -12.6. February’s -3.1, was as amazing six and half degrees higher than the norm of minus -9.6.

However, the string of lower than average monthly snowfall amounts ended at ten last month as the airport station recorded 44 centimetres in March, well above the norm of 28.7.

Meantime, although the Environment Canada precipitation posts are incomplete indications are a comparison of those numbers results in an even greater spread.

The posts for the 21 and 22 of the month are missing, but using the snowfall readings as an estimate guide it’s believed they totaled 6.9 millimetres, and that would put the monthly total at 44 millimetres and nearly double the March of norm of 23.7.