Overall, the month of March had extremely low temperatures, with above-average rainfall, snowfall and sunshine. The temperatures averaged 31.5 degrees, 5.5 degrees per day below the average and about 2.1 degrees colder than March 2014. Maximum temperature was 59.9 degrees on the 11th and a minimum temperature of -5.0 degrees was recorded on the 1st. This -5.0 minimum temperature ties the earlier record low set in March 1948. Daytime high temperatures averaged 41.3 degrees, 4.4 degrees below the norm. Evening temperatures averaged 21.8 degrees, 6.6 degrees below the norm and 1.6 degrees below 2014. Winds can be a big factor in March, yet this year we only had 1 day with damaging winds and 2 days with fog.
Sunshine totaled 50% of the possible sunshine hours, 2 points above the norm. Sunshine data are from the Blue Hill Observatory. Year-to-date sunshine for 2015 is a little below the normal at this time of year.
Precipitation totaled 5.91 inches. This is 0.56 inches above normal. We had measurable precipitation of 0.10 inches or greater on 12 days. The largest 24-hour rainfall was 1.57 inches on the 27th. The monthly rainfall was spread out evenly over all four weeks of the month. We have received a total of 13.44 inches of precipitation year-to-date, totaling 0.34 inches above the average for East Wareham. We had 7 days with measurable snowfall during the month, totaling 20.3 inches, which is 11.6 inches above average. March 2015 will be recorded as the 4th snowiest March in our records here in East Wareham since 1953. The 2014–2015 winter season snowfall recorded in East Wareham is now at 86.0 inches, 49.9 inches above the seasonal average and 2nd highest snowfall total for a season in the 62 years of record keeping on snowfall here in East Wareham. I would also like to note that this winter season we had snow cover starting back on January 27 and lasting until March 28, for a total of 61 consecutive days, with the deepest snow cover being between 25 and 30 inches during the first week of March.