(Radio Iowa) – A four-day stretch of uncharacteristic heat in March pushed the month near the top of the state record book for warmth. State Climatologist Justin Glisan says one of the days was the hottest ever in March.
“On the 21st, Little Sioux in western Iowa hit 97 degrees during the heat wave that we had across much of the High Plains and into the Midwest, where temperatures were running about 20 degrees above average,” he says. “So that 97 degree temperature at Little Sioux was about 45 degrees above normal.” That broke the March record set back in 1907 in Clarinda and Massena of 92 degrees on March 25th.
Glenwood tied the record on March 29th, 1986. Glisan says record came on the last day of the heat wave. “If you take March 18th through the 21st, temperatures were running about 20 degrees above average across the state. So there were numerous stations across the state that either tied or broke their all time high record March temperature,” Glisan says. The record heat came just days after a blizzard shut down interstate highways and everything else in the state.
“If you take the cold temperatures from the blizzard and then the warmth towards the end of the month, Overall, we were about five-point-two (5.2) degrees above average, so this is going to be around the top ten warmest marches on record,” Glisan says.
Glisan says with subzero temperatures and record heat, March goes down as a month with extremes on both ends of the spectrum.
