March was distinctly a month of two halves, cold and dry in the first half and wet and relatively mild in the second. The result? As a whole, fairly average.

   Meteorologically March is the start of Spring, but for the first half of it at least, it didn't feel like it.

   The month started cold, in the first 13 days only once did the minimum temperature remain above freezing (6th at just 0.2°c). Daytime temperatures during this period were not particularly high, typically in the range of 6-8°c. But it was both dry and sunny and on the whole, quite pleasant.

   During this period an area of high pressure established itself over the UK and this was the cause of our dry and sunny weather. The 6th was cloudy as the high pressure moved west of Eire, but for the 7-10th the high pressure re-established itself over the Uk and it was back to cold nights and sunny days. The coldest day came on the 8th, -5.2°c (22.64°F).

   From the 11th there was a change in that the high pressure moved west into the Atlantic and frontal systems were moving around its northern edge and then travelled south towards us. But for ourselves this just resulted in cloudy days that still remained dry.

   Even when the high pressure started to give way we only saw weakening frontal systems come our way and we still stayed dry.

   The 14th was a fairly significant day in some respects. With a maximum temp' of 10.8°c (51.44°F) it was the first day since 6.12.09. (66 days) that had gone above the dizzy heights of 10.0°c.

   The first 17 days of the month saw just 1.2mm of precipitation and half of that was melted frost with 'FE' days recorded on the 4/7/10th. Indeed the period of 27.2.10 to 17.3.10. was an official 'Dry Spell' - a period of at least 15 consecutive days to none of which is credited 1.0mm of ppt. This period of 19 days saw just 1.8mm.

   The dry spell came to an end on the 18th when rain from late afternoon resulted in 4.4mm. But almost typically the 18th provided us with the months highest temp' at 14.3°c (57.74°c) and also the highest minimum temp' of 7.3°c - it was a part cloudy day with sunny periods, but breezy and was possibly the first real day of spring?

   Steadily the month became milder, but also wetter. From the 20th we only had two further dry days (27-28th) the 27th been a sunny day.

   The 21st had been a pleasant day with a weak ridge of high pressure over us, but this gave way as frontal systems moved east and 22-26th saw rain becoming a frequent visitor.

   The month ended wet and it also started to get colder. On the 28th a frontal system was moving north over the UK and these brought heavy rain on the 29/30th. With 26.4mm over the two days they provided a third of the months rain. At 79.6mm (3.13 inch) of rain/ppt the month had managed to average itself out.

   The month ended with a reminder that spring can be all things, good and bad. Snow returned and it was also the month's coldest day. Day time temperatures were typically just 2-3°c (although the max' temp was 5.1°c, this came during the early hours) and with a strong and gusting NW'ly wind blowing in heavy snow showers, the day was quite unpleasant.

   At least we did not have any days of laying snow and just the 31st saw a day of falling snow, although this did not settle at all.

   The Mean Temperature for the month was 4.78°c - the Mean Max' was 8.66°c and the Mean Min' 0.9°c.

   We had 12 Air Frosts in the month (49 for 2010), still a healthy amount and Grass frosts totalled 18 (76 for 2010).

  COMPARISONS:-

   * March 10 rainfall was 88.66% of the average for 08-09

   * March 10 was 0.75°c colder than 2009 +

   * March saw 14 dry days.

  * The 3 month mean for January/February/March 2010 is              TEMP'  2.18°c          -          RAIN 140.60 mm


  *                     January/February/March 2009 was              TEMP'  4.24°c          -          RAIN 299.20 mm

  *                     January/February/March 2008 was              TEMP'                  -          RAIN 450.70 mm