News

An unusual warm March brings early thaw to town

By Alicia Wicklund

04/24/2012

Numbers don’t lie – weather temperatures in Bottineau for March 2012 broke records that date back to 1893.

“March was very unusual,” said Gordon Grover, a weather observer for Bottineau. “March in Bottineau was 16 degrees above the average long-range March temperature, but the whole year has been that way.”

He said the average long-range temperature for March was 21°F, compared to 37°F for this year.

For January, February and March, the average long-range temperature is 10.4°F.

“But this year, that average daily temperature from January to March is 23.1°F. So it’s 12.7°F above normal,” he said.

Weather temperatures for Bottineau County were first recorded in 1893. This has been the warmest March over 119 years.

Yet, the contiguous United States experienced the same thing for the first three months of 2012. This year, 42°F was the average three-month temperature.  

“That’s 6°F above the long-term contiguous U.S. average that dates back to 1893,” said Grover.

The average 2012 March temperature for the contiguous U.S. was the warmest March on record too.

“It was also the highest departure from average for the month of March,” he said.

“We are definitely in a global warming pattern,” said Grover. “It’s not just a cycle. It’s warmer now than it ever has been for Bottineau as well as the contiguous U.S. They say the same goes globally.”

He explained that temperatures have steadily risen 1.3°F over the 20th century.  

From April 2011 to March 2012, the average contiguous temperature was 55.4°F.

“This is the warmest 12-month period on record for the contiguous U.S.,” he said.

According to Grover, the warmest day in March 2012 for Bottineau reached 71°F on the 18 followed by 69°F on the 30.

“I’m sure we’ve never had a 71°F day in the past for March,” said Grover. “That day broke records all over.”

Yet, 24°F on March 3 and 4 marked the coldest days for March this year.

“There were only three days in March that temperatures were below freezing. There were very few days all winter where we had negative temperature days,” he said.

Yet, the winter before, Grover said Bottineau went 83 consecutive days before temperatures went above freezing.

“This year it didn’t even go 10 days,” he said. “We had 40 degree temperatures in January. Nine days was the longest we went where temperatures didn’t get above freezing since November.”  

The coldest night this winter was 28°F on Jan. 18.
Grover has never seen a winter as mild as this. He said while working at Walmart he asked co-workers and old-timers if they have ever seen a winter such as this and they all said never.

“It was the middle of January before we had any snow on the ground that actually stayed. Old timers said the last time that happened was the middle of the 20th century,” explained Grover.

One 84-year old co-worker, Grover said, remembers on New Year’s Day he played golf and that was about 1950.

“But then of course, Bottineau got snow after that,” Grover said.  

In total, 34.8 inches of snow has fallen this past winter.

“It doesn’t seem like it, but they were all in little storms,” said Grover.

The first snowfall was back in November, but it all melted.
When asked what he predicted the summer to be like, he laughed, “Oh no… I’m a weather observer. We aren’t meteorologists. We don’t know more than anyone else. But we do have a lot of figures and those tell a lot.”

He added, “I do know that if this summer is like the beginning of the year with temperatures being 16°F above average, it’s going to be a hot one.”

Grover is one of several weather observers that report figures to the National Weather Service. Grover said all of Bottineau’s daily readings go to Bismark. The other office is in Grand Forks.