Weekend Weather Blog: March in Review

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — We’ve been in a rut since January. Wat do I mean? the dry weather is continuing across all of southern Idaho, heightening the concerns of what summer might be like this year. Let’s take a look back at what the first month of meteorological spring had to offer.

After a very cold winter, one in which we saw 2 of 3 months with below average temperatures, March moderated out quite a bit. All climate reporting stations saw average highs within a degree of normal. Twin Falls was the only station of the three to see an above normal month as far as temperatures go, with an average high of 52.8°F. This was 0.6° above the normal of 52.2°F.

Burley and Jerome were both a touch below normal. With an average high of 52.7° F, Burley was 0.3° F below the normal average high of 53.0°. Jerome saw an average high of 52.5°, a mere 0.1° below the normal average high of 52.6°.

So we saw near average temperatures - that’s great! Unfortunately, as I said earlier, we’ve been in a rut. Precipitation has struggled to reach much of Southern Idaho. In fact, all three climate reporting stations were yet again very below normal for march’s standards.

During the entire month, Twin Falls saw 0.38″ if precipitation. This fell way short of normal - in fact 0.6″ below the normal of 0.98″ to be exact. Jerome wasn’t much different, seeing 0.2″ of precipitation for the entire month of March, 0.9″ below the normal of 1.1″. Burley saw only 0.1″ of precipitation, a full0.92″ below the normal of 1.02″.

This dry trend has not been good. and the bad news is it’s not looking like it’s going to end anytime soon. The region may get a few drops of precipitation on Monday, but it shouldn’t amount to much. With irrigation beginning at just 5/8 of an inch per share, there’s concern for the upcoming growing season and summer. Here’s to hoping a December-like pattern returns to the region.