wildfires

While March temperatures came in above normal, they were not nearly as anomalously mild as those seen in January and February. This quelled concerns that an early blooming season might arise, one that could result in damaged vegetation had an early bloom been followed by an unseasonable cold spell. The average March temperature across NJ was 42.1°. This was 1.2° above the 1991–2020 normal and ranks as the 30th mildest March since 1895. The average maximum temperature of 52.2° was 1.3° above normal, ranking 37th mildest. The average minimum of 32.1° was 0.9° on the mild side, ranking 29th mildest. The National Centers for Environmental Information northern division averaged 39.8° (+1.0°, 31st mildest), the southern division 43.5° (+1.1°, 31st mildest), and the coastal division 43.7° (+1.5°, 23rd mildest).

Statewide, precipitation averaged 2.75”, which is 1.45” below normal and ranks 29th driest of the past 129 years. The northern coast and northeast were wettest and the southwest and far south driest. This was reflected in the northern division averaging 3.07” (-0.94”, 44th driest), southern 2.52” (-1.80”, 24th driest), and coast 2.84” (-1.58”, 30th driest).

March statewide average snowfall was 1.8”. This was 2.8” below normal and ranks as 49th least snowy. Northern counties averaged 5.4” (-1.8”, 56th least snowy), central counties 1.5” (-3.9”, 46th least snowy), and southern counties 0.0” (-2.7”, tied with 37 other years as least snowy).

Was it a drier-than-average April? Was it a wetter-than-average April? If only it hadn't rained heavily on the last day of the month! Certainly this is a strange beginning to this monthly weather narrative. Let me explain before we get to the numbers. Most National Weather Service Cooperative observers, of which there are several dozen in New Jersey, take their daily observations in the 7-8 AM time range. So does nearly every NJ CoCoRaHS observer. These observations are recorded for the calendar day at hand, thus a day's weather records are complete as of the observation time. This means that any precipitation that occurs after the daily observation gets recorded the next morning (day). This is something that must be understood when evaluating daily precipitation reports, however, it does not make any difference in monthly totals except on the first and last day of the month. One of these exceptions occurred, in a big way, in April…or was it May?! Torrential rain fell during the daylight hours into the evening of April 30, part of an event that began lightly during the daylight hours of the 29th and ended just after observation time on the morning of May 1st (yes, meaning May 2 observations also were involved in storm totals). What up until then had been a somewhat dry April suddenly became a wet month…if you waited until midnight to take your observations. And believe it or not, some COOP stations do have observations taken at midnight. Confused? Can't blame you…