This is Dave Epstein on what to anticipate — usually — this March

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“The start of March this 12 months goes to really feel like winter.”

With the ultimate weekend of the month developing, calendars will rapidly flip to March.

I like March. I additionally love November, and I do know each months will not be most individuals’s favorites.

Earlier than I get to the climate outlook for March, which begins Sunday, let me put in some good phrases for the month. In almost yearly, March is the month through which we get again our naked floor. Some years, in fact, it comes earlier, and there are a number of examples the place it comes and goes all through the month. However for essentially the most half, there’s a revealing of the grass through the month. This provides us a chance to see what the winter did to our timber, shrubs, and lawns, however we additionally achieve an appreciation for the refined modifications that happen this month.

Crocuses and even some early daffodils will bloom this month as will hamamelis or witch-hazel. Purple-winged blackbirds can be noisy within the morning, together with a cacophony of different songbirds.

Super daylight

March brings great daylight with 11 hours and 14 minutes of it to start out and 12 hours and 40 minutes to complete. Within the wee hours of Sunday morning, March 8, we spring ahead into daylight saving time once more; then two weeks later, astronomical spring begins on March 20 (the spring equinox) and the solar angle rises by over 10 levels.

In some years, March brings the ultimate freeze for downtown Boston, however for many of us, it’s approach too early to be enthusiastic about non-freezing temperatures.

In 1952, the temperature was 25 levels in Boston on St Patrick’s Day morning and that was the final time it went under freezing till the next autumn. As a aspect notice, 2024 and 2022 introduced the ultimate freezes of the season to Boston through the closing week of March.

March: ‘In like a lion’?

This 12 months, we’re going to start out the month chilly. The polar vortex, which retains the chilly air locked up within the Arctic, can sometimes permit that frigid air to flee southward when it stretches or wobbles. New England ought to really feel yet one more burst of Arctic air as we begin the brand new month. You could possibly say that March goes to come back in like a lion, no less than by way of these chilly temperatures.

We’ll have to look at a storm system brewing for the primary week of the month as properly. With the Arctic air in place and moisture making an attempt to maneuver up from the south, we might be extra snow. The monitor and depth of a storm is inconceivable to foretell every week away, however that’s our subsequent vital likelihood of any extra shoveling. Certainly, the start of March this 12 months goes to really feel like winter.

Traditionally, most of March’s snow will fall earlier than March 20, however we are able to see accumulation at any time. Common snowfall is round 9 inches, however we are inclined to have snowy Marchs or not-so-snowy Marchs.

Snow accumulation to date this season for Boston had reached 60 inches as of Wednesday, making it the snowiest winter since 2021-22. Nonetheless different areas, particularly Windfall, are pacing the historic totals from 2014-15’s Snowmageddon.

Remainder of the month

I don’t need to give false hope, however the second week of March has a powerful indication for a lot milder air transferring into the area. This air could also be heat sufficient to essentially make an enormous dent in our snow piles. This might be the primary time Boston will get to 60 levels or greater since Nov. 26, 2025. On that day, we reached 63. I’m not predicting that’s going to occur, however I believe there’s no less than some chance that we find yourself milder than common for no less than a number of days that second week.

Wanting additional out, weeks three and 4 present greater than common possibilities of temperatures at or a bit of above common. Since that is over a 14-day span, there may nonetheless be some chilly, however that is definitely a greater long-term sample than what we’ve seen in months, should you don’t like chilly climate.

Winter this 12 months has introduced constant chilly and constant snow, the likes of which we haven’t seen in over a decade. That is additionally going to imply that for a lot of, the upcoming spring can be cherished a bit of greater than traditional.

However earlier than we get there, March will inevitably deliver us hope — and in addition disappointment. So buckle up.