March, in like a lion or lamb?
March is typically a transition month across western and north central Nebraska as winter comes to a close and spring begins. Wintry weather including heavy snow and blizzard conditions can be followed with severe weather including tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds. Large variations in temperatures can occur. All time March record lows and highs for North Platte range from 22 degrees below zero to 88 degrees. For Valentine the all time March record low is 29 degrees below zero, with an all time record high of 87 degrees.
Heavy snow and blizzards have occurred during the month and March is typically the snowiest month of the year. Over the past 130 years North Platte has had 5 record occurrences of daily snowfall exceeding 10 inches with the heaviest of 12.6 inches in 1894. Over the past 120 years, Valentine has had 7 record occurrences of daily snowfall exceeding 10 inches. The heaviest was a whopping 17.1 inches in 1977.
Across western and north central Nebraska, severe weather episodes generally occur once every other year during March. A year ago, a major severe weather and tornado outbreak occurred on the 28th of March. A total of 7 tornadoes were observed that evening, including an F2 tornado near Grant.
Below is a table of highs, lows, precipitation and snowfall for the 1st and 31st of March for the past 10 years at North Platte and Valentine. March 2008 came in like a lamb with high temperatures in the 70s, will it go out like a lion?
| North Platte | ||||||||
| March 1 | March 31 | |||||||
| Year | High | Low | Precip | Snow | High | Low | Precip | Snow |
| 1999 | 72 | 27 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 73 | 34 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2000 | 60 | 20 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 50 | 36 | 0.01 | 0.0 |
| 2001 | 49 | 21 | T | T | 49 | 23 | 0.01 | T |
| 2002 | 25 | 2 | 0.44 | 7.4 | 55 | 32 | 0.13 | 1.3 |
| 2003 | 44 | 16 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 76 | 30 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2004 | 33 | 21 | T | 0.0 | 67 | 19 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2005 | 52 | 7 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 56 | 27 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2006 | 65 | 33 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 64 | 37 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2007 | 44 | 24 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 56 | 38 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2008 | 77 | 24 | 0.00 | 0.0 | ||||
| Normal | 47 | 19 | 0.03 | 0.1 | 57 | 28 | 0.05 | 0.2 |
| Valentine | ||||||||
| March 1 |
March 31 |
|||||||
| Year | High | Low | Precip | Snow | High | Low | Precip | Snow |
| 1999 | 63 | 27 | 0.04 | 0.0 | 69 | 35 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2000 | 53 | 19 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 54 | 29 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2001 | 42 | 14 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 46 | 22 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2002 | 11 | -2 | 0.15 | 2.6 | 51 | 28 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2003 | 40 |
9 | T | T | 78 | 36 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2004 | 32 | 23 | T | T | 70 | 25 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2005 | 51 | 7 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 53 | 25 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
| 2006 | 59 | 29 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 58 | 33 | T | 0.0 |
| 2007 | 33 | 22 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 39 | 35 | 0.07 | 0.0 |
| 2008 | 72 | 30 | 0.00 | 0.0 | ||||
| Normal | 43 | 18 | 0.02 | 0.3 | 54 | 27 | 0.05 | 0.2 |
Created by Chris Buttler and Matt Masek
