SALT LAKE CITY — This March is feeling like the nicest May we have had in years. While some things could change, we have already set a few records by a mile. But when you think about it, weather records are very seldom good news.
Our water comes from snow in the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau regions, which are currently sitting at 34% and 44% of normal. That is terrible, and some places like the Four Corners are at 0%.
Normally, we want all that snow to stay there until late April or early May and then melt fast, but this March seems to be out for blood.
The first big number to look at is 62.1. Our average high temperature so far is already a tick ahead of the record set 98 years ago. The record average maximum temperature from 1934 is 62. An unusually cold end to the month could keep 1934 on top, but our current March is very different from 1934.
The second big number is nine. We have already had nine days that were 10 or more degrees above normal. For the whole month of 1934, there were just two days that much hotter than normal. Being 10 degrees above normal happens on certain days in many years, but some things almost never happen.
Our third big number is three. This month, we have had three days hitting 80 degrees or higher. In the previous 150 years, that only happened once, when it reached 80 degrees on March 31, 2012.
That record month in 1934 was one of the most difficult times in American history. The Dust Bowl is what we call the severe drought that turned America's heartland into a source of massive dust storms, which they called black blizzards. Most of us feel insulated from drought these days, but weather is bigger than all of us.
