Leo Routed the Lamb

Welcome Spring!

March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Didn't happen. I'm very behind in blogging, so as I write, it's mid-April and that lamb is still missing. Winter persists; over the past month and a half only thirteen days have had highs that were normal or above normal. The garden chores are way behind schedule. I spend a lot of time studying the Weather Channel and plotting when it might possibly be dry and/or temperate enough to get outside and get something--anything-- done! We managed to get 60 onion bulbs planted this month, but finding a window of opportune weather conditions for even that relatively small job wasn't easy.  Baker's Acres, my favorite nursery, opened for the season on March 24, and I bought a flat of pansies in honor of Spring's official arrival. You can see from the photo why I didn't rush home to plant them. It's very hard to garden when bundled up like Nanook of the North.

Of the many weather anomalies and historic events occurring in March 2018, the persistence of winter in Central Ohio is small potatoes. The East Coast experienced four nor'easters between March 1 and March 20, resulting in new March snowfall records being set in many places. As March began, the Arctic had just seen one of its warmest months on record, with February temperatures running36-54⁰ above average. Alaska had one of its warmest Marches on record, with temperatures running 6.9⁰ above average; Barrow, Alaska experienced the warmest March on record. Heavy rainfall fell in parts of the Hawaiian Islands; Lihue had 9.03" of rain in March which was 196% of its normal rainfall for the month. Rare March tornadoes in the Southeast caused more than $1 billion in damages and killed three people.*

Compared to the above events, Bean Hill's March was benign.

• Twenty-three of thirty-one days and nights had below normal temperatures
• Eighteen of those days had highs that were 5-19⁰ below normal and 12 of those nights had lows of 5-10⁰ below average.
• The month's historic average high is 51⁰ and this year our average high was 45.8⁰; the historic average low is 33⁰ compared to this year's 28⁰. While February's temperatures averaged 5⁰ above normal, March's averaged 5⁰ below.
• Rainfall was exactly what it should have been--3.21".
• Snowfall was below normal: 4.4" is average and we had 2.9".
• No new records highs or lows were set.

By the way, those pansies finally did get planted, and seem to be thriving (as are the daffodils) despite the less than agreeable weather. They are literally bright spots in a rather dismal start to Spring.

*These statistics come from NOAA's National Climate Report for March 2018. NOAA's site is fascinating, especially if you're a weather/climate junkie NOAA National Climate Report