March Madness
By Steven Strouss
Much of the United States experienced record warmth during the month of March. In all over 7,500 records were broken from Alabama to Wisconsin and some of those records were smashed by over 30 degrees.
Perhaps one of the most notable locations for record March warmth was the city of Marquette, Michigan. During the afternoon of March 21st, the mercury soared to a whopping 81 degrees. Not only did this demolish their previous record high of 49 degrees but their morning low of 52 degrees also beat their record high which stood for over 20 years. To put this in more perspective, you could double their normal high for the date, which is 36 degrees, and the resulting temperature would still not be high enough.
Many other locations in the Midwest and Great Lakes sustained a historical March. In Chicago, it was the warmest March ever but it would have been the 7th warmest even by April's standards. Minneapolis experienced their earliest 80 degree day ever and in Wausau, WI records were tied or broken for 8 consecutive days.
Closer to home, it was the 2nd warmest March in Philadelphia and Reading but it was the warmest ever in Allentown, Atlantic City, Trenton and Mt. Pocono.
Many of you are now wondering what the summer will be like. To find out you'll have to check out our summer forecast which will air on CBS3 next month.