Our dramatic snowfall deficit this season continued through March here in Syracuse, courtesy of warm and dry conditions.

What You Need To Know

  • March 2021 was one of the driest on record in Syracuse

  • We are still running well behind our average snowfall

  • Many above-average highs contributed to an unseasonably mild month

Just How Warm Was It?

Our average daily high temperature in March is about 43 degrees, while the average daily low is 25. In March 2021, our average daily high was just over 50 degrees, and the average low was nearly 27 degrees.

When you take the average of all the daily high and low temperatures, you find the mean temperature for the month, which was 38.6 degrees, 4.4 degrees above average!

Many warmer-than-average days helped us reach this point, including five days in the 60s and six days in the 70s.

In historical context, this March was the seventeenth warmest on record in Syracuse. For some perspective, the warmest March in Syracuse since 1903 was in 2012. The mean temperature was an astounding 46.5 degrees.

Snow Drought Continued

In terms of precipitation, March 2021 ended up being the ninth driest March on record here in the Salt City. We received the liquid-equivalent of 1.36 inches of precipitation, over an inch and a half below average.

The driest March on record was back in 1910 when there were only 0.63 inches!

In terms of just snowfall, we received only 4.6 inches of accumulation, making it the thirteenth least snowy March. This brought our seasonal total to 119.9 inches by the end of the month, almost 51 inches below average.

Given that April started with snow across our region, we added a bit more to our total.

We'll see if there is more wintry weather to come or if the transition to spring will finally be complete this month.