DC's diverse March weather

 

Feeling more like spring

March is arguably the most diverse weather month of the year in the nation’s capital.  It has something for everyone from cold and snow to late spring-like warmth.  March has, in recent years, featured a lot of mild and drier than average weather for Washingtonians. 

DC residents have experienced three of the five warmest March’s on record just since 2012.  80-degree warmth has occurred in every March since 2020, so it will be interesting to see if the nation’s capital can make it a fifth consecutive year in 2024.  On the opposite end of the spectrum were DC’s three consecutive colder than average March’s from 2013 – 2015, DC’s longest such stretch since the early 1990s.  Record March snowfall also occurred in 2014 and 2015.

While 80-degree warmth is uncommon in the nation's capital, DC's warmest March temperature on record is 93°.  Ironically, March 1907 featured three days of 90-degree heat in the nation's capital, but it doesn't rank among the Top 10 warmest overall since it got off to a very cold and snowy start.  

NOAA updated its 30-year climate averages in the spring of 2021 to reflect the period of 1991-2020.  That replaced the previous dataset of 1981-2010.  There were changes that resulted from replacing the 1980s with the 2010s.  Since the 2010s were such a warm decade for the nation’s capital, average daily high/low temperatures increased throughout March as a result. 

However, the biggest change in DC’s March weather was the result of it being DC’s snowiest month of the year five times in the last 15 years.  Consequently, DC’s March snowfall average increased from 1.3” to 2”.  March is now DC’s third snowiest month of the year behind only January and February.  Accumulating March snowfall has occurred in the nation’s capital in seven of the last 10 years.  At the same time, March has been drier than average six times in the last 10 years.

DC’s Ten Warmest March’s (Source: NOAA)

1. 56.8° (2012)
2. 56.2° (1945)
3. 55.5° (1921)
4. 53.5° (2016)
5. 53.2° (2020)
6. 53.0° (1946)
7. 52.7° (1977)
8. 51.7° (2000)
9. 51.5° (1979)
10. 51.3° (1976)