"Superstorm of 1993" Snow in the Mid-Atlantic (Source: NOAA) |
Although only 0.3” of snow fell in Washington, D.C. on
March 1, it was significant since it made March 2019 the seventh consecutive
March that accumulating snowfall has occurred.
While the “coldest” daily average high/low temperatures in the Nation’s
Capital are above freezing (51°/34°) on March 1, DC averages 1.3” of snow in
March. To add to that, March has been
DC’s snowiest month in four of the last six years.
By coincidence, today is the 26th
anniversary of the “Superstorm of 1993” that brought havoc to the eastern
United States from Florida to New England.
Record snowfall occurred as far south as Mississippi and Georgia. The 1993 storm remains the ninth largest
snowstorm on record at Dulles Airport in Sterling, VA with 14.1”. Since the snow changed to sleet at the height
of the storm downtown, the overall accumulation in Washington, D.C. was only
6.6”.
Large temperature swings are quite common in March, as
well. For example, DC residents enjoyed
a spring-like high temperature of 70° on March 15, 2014, but snow fell the next
evening with a high of only 32° on March 17, 2014. A total of 7.2” of snow accumulated in
Washington, D.C. on March 16-17, 2014.
While March 2014 was DC’s snowiest since 1960, March
2012 and March 2016 were DC’s warmest and fourth warmest March’s on
record. Washingtonians experienced four
days of high temperatures in the 80s in March 2012 and 10 days in the 70s in
both March 2012 and March 2016. The
warmest temperature in the Nation’s Capital so far this March was 62° on March
11.
Meanwhile, large swings in temperature help create
favorable conditions for thunderstorms. While severe thunderstorms aren’t as
common in the United States during the month of March as later in the spring,
they sometimes occur. March severe
weather is more likely to occur in the southeastern United States as happened in
Florida during the 1993 Superstorm. More
recently, a severe weather outbreak on March 3, 2019, produced dozens of
tornadoes from northern Florida to South Carolina. That included a rare EF-4 tornado which
caused 23 fatalities in Lee County, Alabama.
Although infrequent, the DC Metro Area has experienced
severe March weather. On March 10, 2011,
two weak tornadoes touched down in northern Virginia. Just last year, DC residents experienced a
powerful wind event as an area of low pressure rapidly intensified as it
departed the region. Consequently, there
were some damaging wind gusts that met severe criteria (58 mph/+). However, gusty winds outside thunderstorms are
not officially “severe,” regardless of whether or not any damage occurs.
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