After a final fling of winter’s wet weather, with the first
three days of March producing over a third of the monthly total rainfall of 58.4mm, including the wettest day of the month (2nd); March produced some welcome dry conditions. The next seventeen days recorded just one very small fall of rain on the 6th. Coincident with the Spring Equinox came the return of more unsettled weather, with dry days mixing with seven days when rainfall was recorded. Overall, the monthly total was
about what is expected for March in this area.  March 2013 was wet,  and the two before that, dry.

The first few days were coupled with clear nights and there were some light frosts, but once the dry spell started, temperatures by day and night started to rise and by mid month six days had recorded highs above 15C. When the unsettled conditions returned there was a shortlived northerly airstream and temperatures fell with frosts returning by night. The night of the 23-24th. was the month’s coldest with a minimum temperature of -4C. Significantly, this was the coldest night of the ‘Winter’, three days after the Spring Equinox.  The figure is not in itself unusual for this time of year in our valley, but it was enough to damage the emerging new growths on the fuschias.  But, other than this, March was a mild month, with a mean temperature of about
7.6C. This was about 3.6C milder than March 2013, but still O.8C colder than the exceptionally warm March in 2012.  Evenso, the Season is about ten days ahead of ‘average’.

My thanks to Chris Pickersgill for taking the readings and looking after the greenhouse whilst Gilly and I were off enjoying summer warmth in South Spain for a week.

Peter at Pottlelake