A month for hanging outside

• Playing around

Echo Press photo by Lowell Anderson With temperatures in the mid-40s Wednesday, children at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Alexandria enjoyed the chance to go outside and enjoy the playground equipment. Pictured (left to right) are Evan Buttweiler, Aidan Garcia and Nicholas Huss.
• Graph

Graph

Talk about it

March came in like a lamb and is forecast to go out like a lamb.

In fact, a lion was nowhere in sight during the entire month.

For the first time in 14 years, it didn’t snow once in Alexandria for the whole month of March.

Even though there’s still five more days to go, no precipitation is forecast for the weekend and temperatures next week are predicted to climb into the 60s.

Temperatures were mild most of the month; they rose above the freezing mark every day and hit the 50s five times.

That’s quite a change from the last couple of years.

Last March brought 19.4 inches of snow and the March 2008 total was just under 11 inches.

The end of the month was especially cruel, dashing thoughts of spring with a 10-inch snowstorm on March 31, 2009 and a three-inch accumulation on March 31, 2008.

The last snowless March in Alexandria happened in 1996. That was an unusual winter. After two inches of snow fell on January 17, no more flakes fell until April 12 when the accumulation totaled just 0.6 inches.

Even if April brings snow this year, residents can warm up to one fact: It shouldn’t hang around very long.

Tags: local news, douglas county, news, weather, kids, snow, alexandria