While February was warm and drier than normal, March was sort of the opposite.
Environment Canada Meteorologist Natalie Hazel had the weather stats for last month, and summarized March as being a little colder than normal.
“Most places were colder than normal by two, maybe four, degrees Celsius,” said Hazel.
Saskatoon and Yorkton had the biggest temperature swings at minus 3.8 degrees compared to their monthly averages. Not far behind is North Battleford and Moose Jaw with a difference of minus 3.7 degrees. The rest of Environment Canada’s weather stations recorded temperature differences from minus 2 degrees in Meadow Lake down to minus 2.7 in Estevan.
Hazel noted some warmer days were observed during the period of March 11 to 19.
For precipitation, Hazel says most stations reported less than normal averages, especially in Key Lake where it recorded the 3rd driest March with only 5.7 millimetres, well below the normal of 21.1mm. Yorkton, however, was the outlier, recording 33.6mm during the month, well above the normal 20mm for that time of year.
“Quite the variability depending on where you are in the province, most places were dry.” Hazel said.
A pair of weather systems March 2 and 3 brought heavy snow to the west-central region of the province, and another system that affected southern Alberta brought much-needed precipitation to the southwest.