March continued on the cool side despite some warmer temperatures in the last week. The average temperature for the month now stands at -4.4° C, up significantly from last week’s freezer at -10.1° C.
The normal average temperature for March is -1.4° C so we’re catching up after a very cold start to the month. The forecast is for above average temperatures, especially at night in the coming week, so there will likely be a lot more activity in area sugar bushes than the slow start up we saw last week.
There was 13.4 mm of rain and 8 cm of snow, which melted down to 11 mm of water, for a total of just over 24 mm of precipitation. That brings the month-to-date total to 34 mm of precipitation, which is normal. The forecast however, is for very little in the way of rain or snow until the very end of the March.
A sure sign of spring, the first flock of geese descended on some cornfields on March 7th. However, the other signal that spring has arrived – the ice going out on the Chateaugay River – doesn’t seem imminent and is more likely to occur close to the average date of March 25th.
