Slow melt: Bend’s March second-coldest on record

Anyone who watched how slowly Bend’s late-February snow dump melted from yards, streets and lawns won’t be too surprised to learn the city experienced the second-coldest March on record — and the coldest in over a century, according to the National Weather Service.

According to preliminary data released Monday, Bend’s average temperature for the month (recorded at Bend Airport east of the city) was 32.3 degrees, nearly 7 degrees below normal. And high temperatures averaged 41.8 degrees, just over 9 degrees below normal.

The only colder March on record was way back in 1917, when the average temperature for the month was 26.9 degrees.

Bend’s warmest March day was the very last, when the high reached 63 degrees.

Low temperatures averaged 22.7 degrees, which was 4.8 degrees below normal. The coldest low for March was 8 degrees, on the 4th.

The low temperature hit 32 or below on 24 of the 31 days of the month — and there were eight March days where the high temperature held below freezing as well.

Bend saw an inch of precipitation for the month, .27 of ain inch above normal. For the year so far, Bend has had 4.54 inches of precipitiation, nearly 1.2 inches above normal. But since October, the “water year” precipitation was been 7.97 inches, still nearly a half-inch below normal.

Bend had nearly five inches of snow in March.

The April outlook from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center calls for above-normal temperatures and precipitation for the coming month.