Apr 022015
 

March 2015 was a wet and windy month with temperatures and sunshine hours slightly below average. The month was the windiest March ever here and the month’s rainfall total was only bettered in March 2010.

The average temperature for the month was 5.7°C, 0.1°C below the mean. The highest temperature recorded was 15.2°C on the 7th at 16:02, with the lowest being -0.3°C on the 9th at 05:48. The average high temperature was 9.5°C, 0.2°C below normal, and the average low temperature was 2.5°C, 0.2°C above normal. The mean temperature for March is now 5.8°C. This was the second month in 2015 to record below average temperatures, following a run of only one below average month in the whole of 2014. There were 82.8 sunshine hours in the month, well below the 105.9 hours recorded last year. The UV index slowly crept up throughout the month, reaching 3.1 on the 27th, the highest UV index since September 13th 2014. There were only two frost days in the month.

Precipitation was recorded on 13 days with the 13th being the wettest at 8.2 millimetres. Total rainfall for the month was 41.2 millimetres, 10.5 millimetres more than average. 26 millimetres of this rain fell in the last week of the month, which was also very windy. There was no snow recorded. Rainfall for the year so far is 107.6 millimetres, approximately 20 millimetres more than usual for the end of March. Evapotranspiration for the month was 42.2 millimetres, 2.5 millimetres lower than 2014.

The most notable feature of the month was the strength of the wind, especially in the final few days. On the 31st, the high wind speed of 45.0 mph was the highest since 49.5 mph was recorded on January 10th 2015. The average wind speed was 6.1 mph and the average gust speed was 9.4 mph, both March records. The maximum wind speed of 27.6 mph from 293° (WNW) on the 31st at 15:57, and the maximum gust speed of 44.9 mph from 293° (WNW) on the 31st at 15:47, were both March records also. The total wind run was 4037.7 miles and the predominant direction was westerly.

The highest barometer reading was 1037.3 millibars, recorded at 01:29 on the 5th. The lowest pressure was 986.2 millibars, recorded at 12:22 on the 29th. The average pressure for the month was 1018.0 millibars. The average humidity was 82%.

Weather Underground graph for March 2015.

Weather Underground graph for March 2015.

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