Winter’s Last Gasp ?

Although DC’s world famous cherry blossoms reached peak bloom on March 20, the weather has hardly felt spring-like the last few days.  The high temperature of 47° in the Nation’s Capital yesterday was more characteristic of Valentine’s Day than the end of March.  It was also the first time Washingtonians experienced a high temperature below 50° in nearly a month.

High temperatures on March 22 and 23 were both cooler than average in the Nation’s Capital.  That was the first time DC residents experienced below average high temperatures on consecutive days since February 27 – March 1.  And that’s coming a mere three days after the DC Metro Area enjoyed record warmth in the low 80s on March 20.

Although yesterday’s high temperature of 47° was well below DC’s average of 58°, it was not as cool as some other dates during the second half of March in recent years.  For example, March 17, 2014, was an especially frigid with a high temperature of only 32°.  It was also DC’s snowiest St. Patrick’s Day with 3.9” officially at National Airport.  More recently on March 21, 2018, DC residents had 4.1” of snow with a high temperature of 36°.  The Nation’s Capital averages a total of only 1.3” of snow in March, according to NOAA, so seeing roughly triple that amount on a single day is impressive.

This brief return to cooler than average weather will be just that, brief.  Of the first 21 days of this month, 20 were warmer than average.  Temperatures haven’t fallen to 32° or colder downtown since March 1.  That helped facilitate the third earliest peak bloom of DC’s cherry blossoms this past Friday, March 20 (tied with four other years, most recently in 2012) behind only March 15, 1990 and March 17, 2000.  The record-tying high temperature of 83° on March 20 was DC’s warmest March temperature since it was also 83° on March 23, 2012.

Since average high temperatures in the Nation’s Capital don’t reach 80° until May 31, temperatures in the 80s are unusual locally during the month of March.  Prior to this past Friday, the last time DC residents experienced 80° warmth was March 1, 2017.  Before that, no 80° March warmth had occurred since 2012, DC’s warmest March on record.  Washingtonians experienced 80° on four days during both March 2012 and March 1998.  Although the DC Metro Area won’t see a repeat of that warmth, NOAA does expect a warmer than average final week of March across the Mid-Atlantic Region.