The daily weather log

After three early rain days, there was a long spell of warm sunny weather. From the middle of the month, all temperatures rose well above normal. The maximum on the 20th went to 35.7° and the minimum on the 28th to 20.6°. A rain-band in the district in the last days yielded only 8 mm, bringing the month’s total to 31.8 mm in four rain days.

 Comparing March months

While the average maximum and Dew Point readings were near normal, the mean and minimum readings were very high. There were more cloudy mornings than any March in the 11-year record, and the daily temperature range (14.1°) was narrow – not much wider than the 13.5° recorded in March 2007. This month was very like that one, but the rain then was four times as heavy.
The rainfall of 31.8 mm is in the 43rd percentile for March, below the long-term average of 51 mm. There are no serious shortages in rainfalls for groups of months. The worst are the 12-month total of 480 mm (16th percentile) and the nine-year total of 5388mm (12th percentile), which is just under 600 mm/year. (The 125-year average is 652 mm/year, and the median (50th percentile) is 627 mm/year.)

Data. Rainfall data is from Manilla Post Office, courtesy of Phil Pinch. Temperature and other data are from 3 Monash Street, Manilla.