Incredible Heat In March

March will go down as one of the warmest since records have been taken all across the United States. Out of 50 states, 25 of them have recorded the warmest March on record. Texas was not one of them, but we were up there with placing 5th for the month. The following image will give you a good grasp of the records that took place. Most of which occurred in the Plains and around the Great Lakes.

There is a strong contrast from the heat east of the Rockies, to the much cooler western states. The largest contributing factor was a lack of snowfall across the entire U.S. and central Canada. Snow acts as a refrigerator keeping the air near the ground chilled even if the upper levels try to warm. For this reason, cold fronts were not as vigorous because there weren't any deep pockets of chilled air. Plus, LaNina, kept the jet stream well to our north.

A jet stream is a stream of very fast winds about 35,000 feet above the ground. Despite its distance away from the surface, this phenomenon paves a highway for storms, but more importantly divides arctic air from tropical air. When the air was cold enough to support snow across the U.S. storms did not form at the right time.

On the other hand, even though the lower 48 was struggling to find its identity this winter, Anchorage, Alaska managed to surpass its all time seasonal snowfall record. The previous record was 132.6" in the  1954-1955 winter season. This season, so far  133.6" of snow has accumulated.

What you need to know is that Spring is a transition season with warm and cold spells. This time the warm air really won out, but cold spells can still happen in April.