March is a transitional month from winter to spring, and March 2022 in the St. Louis area lived up to this notion. We had some temperature highs and even some temperature lows this month.
We began the month on a high note, literally, with six-straight days of above average readings for daytime highs. Our warmest day of the month fell on the 2nd, when the mercury climbed to a balmy 82, breaking a 30-year-old record of 79 degrees.
One might equate to March coming in like a lamb, as in docile weather.
A big storm system dropped 1.65 inches of rain at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport on the 6th, and following that storm was six-straight days of below average readings for high temperatures.
March 11 and 12 saw highs only in the 30s, with 0.8 inches of snow falling on the 11th.
With a fresh snowpack, albeit only around an inch, temperatures plummeted to 14 degrees to begin the day on the 12th. It wasn't a record low, but it was still chilly, as average lows for that day are in the mid-30s.
A week before the official start of spring, temperatures maintained either average readings or highs in the 60s and 70s for the next ten days, giving hope to a mild start to the season.
However, officially into spring, it felt anything like it, as temperatures flip-flopped between the 40s and 50s for the next six days.
The end of month saw a pretty powerful cold front make its way across the "Show Me" state with temperatures ahead of it in the 70s, but after 1.84 inches of rain, colder air moved into the region dropping the high on the 31st to only 43 degrees.
The average high for the last day of the month is 63 degrees.
If you were keeping count, the high temperature statistics for March are: 13 days below average, 16 days above average and 2 days of average readings.
Rainfall was a bit more aggressive as St. Louis Lambert Airport recorded 4.79 inches for the month, mostly from two big storms, exceeding our normal reading of 3.50 inches.
This gives March a surplus of 1.29 inches and boosts our year-to-date surplus to 1.38 inches.
With such a tumultuous end of the month, it appears March ended more like a lion, giving truth to the narrative if March comes in like a lamb, it must go out like a lion.
Although, all of this folklore is in good fun and open to interpretation.
As for April, according to the Climate Prediction Center, the month looks to be about average for temperatures and wetter than normal for precipitation.
