Warm Marches=More Warmth To Follow?

With this March sure to go down as the warmest March on record. I thought it'd interesting to look back at other warm Marches and see what kind of trends, if any, were there for the following months. I used the temperature data for Indianapolis, which dates back to 1871. The chart below is of the top 10 warmest Marches on record for Indianapolis and the following average temperatures for April, May, June, July, and August. The official site for Indianapolis has changed through the years, but from 1871 to 1942 a city or downtown location was used. From 1943 to present day, the official site has been at the airport.

For determining whether the month is normal, below, or above, I used the following values: -0.5 to +0.5 is normal, -0.6 or greater is below normal, and +0.6 or greater is above normal. Also, I did long term monthly averages for the city site (1871-1942) and the airport site (1943-present).

What I found sort of interesting is of the top three warmest Marches, none of the following months from all three years produced an above average month for April through August. There also seems to be a trend of May and June being below normal. July would tend to favor warmth and August is 50-50. Of course, it's a fairly small sample size...but something to think about.

Photos From This Evening

Some cool looking clouds rolling in before the storms hit this evening.

March Normal High/Low Temperatures

1981-10 daily normal high and low temperatures for Lafayette (Purdue Airport)

3/1: 44...26
3/2: 44...27
3/3: 45...27
3/4: 45...27
3/5: 45...28
3/6: 46...28
3/7: 46...28
3/8: 47...29
3/9: 47...29
3/10: 48...29
3/11: 48...30
3/12: 49...30
3/13: 49...30
3/14: 49...31
3/15: 50...31
3/16: 50...31
3/17: 51...32
3/18: 51...32
3/19: 52...32
3/20: 52...33
3/21: 53...33
3/22: 53...33
3/23: 54...34
3/24: 54...34
3/25: 54...34
3/26: 55...35
3/27: 55...35
3/28: 56...35
3/29: 56...36
3/30: 57...36
3/31: 57...36

Severe Thunderstorm Watch Until 12:00PM

Link to watch information: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0055.html

Day 1 convective outlook from SPC: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html

Severe Weather Threat For Friday

The Storm Prediction Center has Lafayette under a slight risk for severe weather for tomorrow.

Latest here: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/