Ah yes, March has arrived, and spring is in the air. Well, maybe it's supposed to be in the air but winter can linger, too. Either way, welcome to the new month, the first official month of spring.

Actually, meteorological spring began on March 1 because weather records for the spring season are kept for the three full months of March, April, and May. Astronomical spring begins at 7 p.m. on March 20 when the Sun is directly overhead at the equator. As the Sun climbs higher in the sky, so do our temperatures.

Have you noticed how much difference a sunny day makes when it comes to warmth and mood? And with our lack of snow on the ground this winter, sunshine goes a lot further in warming the air compared to a typical winter day. The angle of the Sun above the southern horizon at noon on December 21, the first day of winter, is 23.5 degrees. (To put that in perspective, from the horizon to directly above our heads is 90 degrees, and from the south to the north horizon is 180 degrees.) By the vernal (spring) equinox on March 20 the noon sun angle grows to 47 degrees above the horizon. The first day of summer, June 21, finds the midday Sun a whopping 70 degrees above the horizon.

The increasing sun angle is reflected in our increasing normal daytime temperatures. On March 1 the normal high/low is 37/23. March 15th normals are 42/27. By the end of this month the normals have warmed to 48/32. Extremes in temperature are common this time of year, however. March is the only month where the temperature in Milwaukee has been both below zero and above 80 degrees. The warmest day was 82 degrees on March 29, 1986 and March 31, 1986. The coldest day was --10 on March 1, 1962.

March 8, 2000 was an infamous day in southeast Wisconsin because of the earliest tornado on record for Milwaukee County. A weak tornado touched down on the northeast side of Mitchell International Airport and moved into St. Francis. The high on that day and the previous day was 77 degrees. The early-season twister added to the bizarre weather pattern.

Three years earlier on March 13 and 14, 1997 heavy snowfall north of Milwaukee resulted in 28" in Wautoma, up to 8" in Port Washington, and 4" in Sheboygan. That is the type of month this can be: a sampling of the winter season past or the spring season ahead.

As farmers get ready to head out into the fields for spring planting over the next couple of months, it will be time to assess the extent and severity of the drought. So little snowfall over the past 4 months means less moisture for the soil this spring. And cold temperatures combined with a lack of snow cover means the frost depth in the soil has grown deep. Frozen soil does not absorb heavy spring rainfall and flooding is often the result. Let's hope our spring rains come in bits and pieces and the soil has a chance to thaw. With Lake Michigan water levels getting lower by the month, expect that problem to get worse this summer. No melting snow is available to flow into the lake this time of year, and that will have a long-term effect into the warm-weather months.

It seems nature has been a bit off balance this winter. When cites like St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Louisville get more seasonal snowfall than we do, you know something isn't quite right. A weakening El Nino has kept the jet stream split, with the more active storm pattern to our south. When will we return back to "normal" weather? If this month lives up to the reputation of a typical March, our "normal" is still a long way off in the future!