It was a remarkable month for the persistence of winds from a northeasterly (17days) or easterly (9days) direction and the strength of it over many days. This was due to a persistent blocking high pressure over Scandinavia. There were five days with gusts above 30mph and a maximum of 42mph on the 11th. Due to the strong winds and low temperatures, wind chill was a major factor during many days. There were several days with a windchill factor of -4C, dropping to -6C on the 24th and a very low of -8C on the 11th. It was the coldest March I have recorded with a mean of 3.6C below the long-term average but this masks the fact that the daytime mean temperature was 4.4C below the long-term average. There were a record number of days with air frost, 19 in total (the previous record was 17 in 1995), with the most severe on the morning of the 31st when the thermometer dropped to-6.6C, which was the lowest for the whole winter of 2012/2013. It was not a record for March as we experienced a low of -8.4C in 1985 and 2004.
The total rainfall was 79.7mm, which is 139% of the long-term average with 25.2mm falling on the 15th. However, there were a total of 16 days without precipitation and with the very dry northeasterly winds the humidity levels often dropped low by day and night with a minimum of just 44% on the 14th at 3.00pm.
With so many cloudy days it is not surprising that the sunshine total was 85% of the average over the last few years and solar energy just 73%.
We experienced fog on two days, thunder on one and snow occurred on six days.
The weather station of Marlborough, Wiltshire
