The January-February period has been much warmer than normal this year. In fact, state-wide it was the 8th warmest on record. That has people wondering what March might bring. Unfortunately, for five of the other nine years in the top 10 warmest, March ended cooler than normal. And that doesn’t rule out a significant cold wave sandwiched by much warmer than normal temperatures the rest of the month. The concern is that a normal last freeze, which is mid-April for most of the state, would cause considerable damage to crops, fruit trees and ornamentals. Still, it could be like 2012, when Dodge City set its earliest last freeze with a 29 oF reading on March 10th.
Mary Knapp, Weather Data Library
mknapp@ksu.edu