The first 21 days of April were about a half degree colder than normal, on average. The coldest days were the 16th-18th, which included about an inch of snow on the 16th, bringing our total for the winter in Harpswell to 75". My niece, Emily, asked if I have ever had snow on my birthday before and I don't remember for sure, so I searched the internet to find out. So far no definitive answers on which years had snow on April 16th in Hartford or Portland, prior to the latest 5 years but I did find probabilities. According to weatherspark.com, snow falls on average in Hartford on April 16th once in 24 years and in Portland once in 15 years. I have only resided in Portland the last 4 years and I know it has not snowed during those years. I resided in Hartford for 48 years (if I include 4 in Troy, NY as equivalent), so the average probability implies it should have snowed twice during those years; sounds about right.
March 2014 was the 4th coldest on record in Portland, and the coldest March in 47 years. Only 1950, 1956 and 1967 had colder weather in March than this year. Contrast the first graph below with the second. March this year had only 2 days more than 5 degrees above normal and 16 days more than 5 degrees below normal. March of 2012 had 17 days more than 5 degrees above normal and only 3 days more than 5 degrees below normal. The third graph below shows monthly averages vs normal for the 39 months I've had a weather station. Those two Marches are the warmest and coldest months relative to normal during that period. Despite the cold winter we have been through, this March was only the 2nd month in the last 39 that was below the 1951-1980 normals. The final graph show daily temperatures for March.
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SOURCEWeather statistics are based on 5-minute readings at an Ambient Weather station near Mill Cove off of upper Harpswell Sound. Archives
December 2015
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