Arctic air and heavy snowfall more typical of January
kept temperatures some 3 to 4ºC below normal across the continent in March.
The Met Office reports this was the UK’s coldest March since 1962, with an average temperature 3ºC (5.4 ºF) below normal – the 4th coldest March since records began in 1910.
Last weekend, a severe snowstorm in Northern Ireland buried up to 10,000 animals beneath snowdrifts 20 feet (six metres) high.
Meanwhile, the German wether service (DWD) reports that this was the second coldest March in 50 years, behind only 1987. It’s the opposite extreme of last year, when March 2012 was the country’s third warmest on record.
Nationally, the average March 2013 temperature in Germany measured a remarkable 4.1ºC (7.4ºF) below the 1981-2010 normal (6th coldest since records began in 1881).
Snowiest last days of March since 1892
In Berlin, the DWD writes that such abundant snow cover in the final 10 days of March had not been measured since 1892. The average March temperature in the German capital was only 31ºF, some 8 degrees F below normal.
In the Potsdam district southwest of Berlin on March 24, the overnight low of -18.9ºC (-2ºF) set a record for all-time coldest temperature ever recorded in the state of Brandenburg during the final third of March.
Cold in central and eastern Europe
The March cold was equally persistent elsewhere on the continent. Two other records worth mentioning:
Record winter snowfall in Moscow
The Russian capital saw historic snowfall this winter. Wunderground reports nearly 118” had fallen through the end of February alone, 180 percent of normal. Winter 2012-13 will likely become Moscow’s snowiest on record.
Record low maximum temps in Austria
Days with high temperatures below freezing are “extremely rare” after March 20 in Austria’s major cities, writes the Austrian Meteorological Service. Earlier this week, however, several locations broke records for the latest date with a subfreezing maximum temperature. In Vienna, the high was only -1.7ºC (28ºF) on March 25. Previously, the latest date of a subfreezing high temperature in the Austrian capital was March 23, 1958 when the maximum was -1.2ºC (29ºF).
Thanks to Caroline in West Virginia for this link