It Was a Nice March and Overall a Mild Winter

When we flip the calander to a new month I always call Tom Hoverstad who is a scientist at the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca. Tom keeps tract of the weather data at the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca.

Temperatures averaged 3 degrees warmer than normal in March and rainfall was just slightly above normal. There was a lot of concern about flooding this spring as we went into the winter with soils at maximum water holding capacity after all the rain last fall. The snow melt in March was about as perfect as one could hope for!

Almost every day in March temperatures during the day were above freezing and night time temperatures dropped below freezing. Plus the frost went out about the middle of March so some of the rain could soak into the soil. I think you could say we really caught a break with the slow snowmelt and rainfall only slightly above normal.

Tom added that there is a weather group in the Metro area that rank the severity of the winter using temperature and snowfall. The most severe winter was back in 1917. That winter was ranked very severe. One of the mildest was in 2012 which was ranked very mild. That was the year we saw temperatures of 75 degrees at the North American Farm and Power Show. The winter of 2020 was ranked mild!