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March and Spring outlooks: Cooler trend forecast for part of season

Posted at 9:55 AM, Mar 04, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-04 18:01:18-05

RICHMOND, Va. -- February was the sixth warmest February on record for Richmond, and was a month filled with wild temperature swings.  We are now in a more stable pattern, with highs closer to normal.  Over the next week, highs will remain near or below normal with no major warmth expected.

A typical March features our normal temperatures rising into the 60s for highs and 40s for lows.   We normally see about four inches of liquid precipitation and a little bit of snow.  Of course, over the years of weather history, snowfall has ranged from nothing in many years to some isolated monster storms.

Daylight increases significantly, with over an hour of additional daylight by month's end.

We move our clocks forward at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 11, and the vernal equinox occurs on Monday, March 20.

The current pattern that we are in suggests March may end up being pretty typical in terms of temperatures.  There will be some warm weather, but cooler periods will balance that out.  This is a different pattern than what we saw in February.

This pattern also supports precipitation near normal.

Looking ahead to the Spring, the pattern should move back to one that favors temperatures averaging above normal.

That warmer February pattern produced many days with rainfall, but the amount of rain was light.  Over the next few months, we should get some storm systems that produce some heavier rain amounts.

For those fans of warmer weather, the normal high reaches 70° by mid-April and the upper 80s by the summer solstice.

Stay with CBS 6, The Weather Authority.

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