March has been a roller coaster from the beginning, so the average temperature is hardly indicative of the weather we have experienced. The warm spell during the second week disappeared with slightly below-normal temperatures in the third week, except for one day, March 16, when the temperature soared to a daytime high of close to 20 degrees Celsius. Despite the one very warm day, the average temperature for the month dropped slightly from -0.6 C to -0.9 C, which is very close to the monthly average of -1.4 C.
Precipitation in the past week settled down a bit with just a smattering of rain and not one, but two snowfalls. There was 15 centimetres of snow, including on March 22, which melted down to 21 millimetres of water. Heavy stuff typical of March, and bringing the month’s total precipitation to 51 mm, which is about normal. And the wind came into play on March 17 as the warm weather moved on, with gusts between 65-70 kilometres per hour throughout the day and power outages all over for up to 12 hours.
The rest of the month is forecast to be above zero during the day and below freezing at night, so the maple sap should continue to flow in earnest even without a lot of sunshine.