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Record Heat - Central & Eastern North America

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Vaughan Weather:
What a heat spell it was!



A strong upper ridge dominated the weather across much of central and eastern North America for the last 2 weeks producing record high temperatures. NOAA could not keep up with the records as the fell day by day. Here in Southern Ontario, Environment Canada recorded numerous all time temperature records for the month of March. Both of my local airports (CYXU & CYYZ) set all time high temperature records which for many was amazing!

But like all good things, it came to an end yesterday as a cold front swept through just prior to midnight.

Now I'm still trying to figure out just what will happen to all the plants now the the warm spell is over, at least for the next 3 days (according to the NAM/GFS).



Based on GDD's alone we're a good 3.5 to almost 4 weeks ahead of schedule at my home in Vaughan. It seems like the main "problem" with the warm spell was that while it is not unusual for temperatures across Southern Ontario (Great Lakes / N.E U.S) to get into the teens for a few days or even a week with the odd 20C or greater reading, generally the presence of snow cover keeps soil temps in the surface layer at the freezing mark or fairly cool easing the effects of warm weather on plant growth and seed germination.

This year the lack of snow cover virtually everywhere allowed soil temperatures to sky rocket as soon as the warm air hit. Also, since the fine weather was associated for the most part with an upper ridge the strong solar insulation and lack of albedo from cloud cover allowed the majority of that sunlight to directly heat the earth virtually unimpeded. This lack of cloud again associated with such high temperatures is unusual for March in general since often low pressure systems with strong surface advection usher in briefly the much warmer temps as opposed to sunny upper ridges.



Seeing as the temperature today, right NOW is some 20C cooler than it was at this time yesterday I'm wondering how the plants will hold up? Tonight will be the real test with temperatures pegged to dip as low as -5C to -7C across many areas such as MI, Nrn IN, Srn/Ern ON, WNY, VT, NH etc...

I know many of the plants that have a bloom and growth period within the 1-50 GDD period are hardy when it comes to cold and frost, bust many places are already up to 70 or 80 GDD allowing the more fragile plant and insect life to emerge. So I'm a little worried about the long term effects on biomass this will have.

Weather Display:
day length is also important for plants, and that does not change with the temperature :)

bhogsett:
Yes, it was great to have May weather in March.

Daffodils are all blooming, the tree (Norway Maple) outside my window is full of green pre-leaves.

I show that March is 6.4 degrees warmer than average since 2008 and warmer than last April by several degrees.

Yesterday and today are much more March like.  A high of 40 degrees F and winds around 20 miles an hour.  Freeze warning for tonight.

Bill

Cleveland, OH

Vaughan Weather:

--- Quote from: Weather Display on March 26, 2012, 06:06:12 PM ---day length is also important for plants, and that does not change with the temperature :)

--- End quote ---

That's very true & this March has not only been the warmest on record, with the hottest ever March temperatures recorded but we only received about 1/4 of our average monthly rainfall. Only 20.1mm fell vs a normal of 70mm. That means our sunshine hours are well above normal and our fire weather season has started early with the the highest ever fire weather conditions being reported for March!



March 2012 Averages

Average temperature     = 6.8°C
 Average humidity        = 71%
 Average dewpoint        = 1.5°C
 Average barometer       = 1017.7 mb
 Average windspeed       = 9.0 km/h
 Average gustspeed       = 13.6 km/h
 Average direction       = 256° (WSW)
 Rainfall for month      = 20.1 mm
 Rainfall for year       = 72.2 mm
 Maximum rain per minute = 3.0 mm on day 01 at time 00:01
 Maximum temperature     = 27.5°C on day 22 at time 16:11
 Minimum temperature     = -14.1°C on day 05 at time 05:07
 Maximum humidity        = 99% on day 18 at time 10:25
 Minimum humidity        = 16% on day 27 at time 15:31
 Maximum dewpoint        = 16.2°C on day 22 at time 14:03
 Minimum dewpoint        = -19.0°C on day 27 at time 15:31
 Maximum pressure        = 1036.9 mb on day 10 at time 09:18
 Minimum pressure        = 986.5 mb on day 03 at time 01:31
 Maximum windspeed       = 46.3 kmh from 225°( SW) on day 03 at time 09:15
 Maximum gust speed      = 72.2 km/h from 225°( SW) on day 03 at time 09:14
 Maximum heat index      = 27.7°C on day 22 at time 16:11
 Avg daily max temp :12.9°C
 Avg daily min temp :1.0°C
 Growing degrees days :46.4 GDD
 Total windrun = 6659.6km

 Sunshine hours month to date= 146.5 hrs
 Sunshine hours year to date= 300.8 hrs
 Frost days= 14
 Ice days= 2
 Very cold days= 2

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