March Climate Summary

March Precipitation Highlights:

Precipitation was near to slightly below normal near the Illinois River Valley, otherwise the remainder of the area saw above to much above normal precipitation. The highest surpluses were along and south of Jacksonville to Danville line. Parts of southeast IL were more than 3" above normal for the month.
Snowfall was below normal for most of the area. Accumulating snow fell on two days; March 14th and 22nd. The higher totals on the 14th of 2-4" affected the Bloomington area, resulting in above normal monthly totals there. Snowfall of 1.8" in Springfield on the 22nd resulted in a daily record snowfall.

March Temperature Highlights:

Monthly average temperatures were well above normal for all of central and southeast IL. The month ended up 2-4 degrees above normal. Only one stretch of cool weather brought substantially below normal temperatures for the 21st-24th, otherwise most of days in March saw above normal readings.

Climate Statistics:

Site	Precipitation	Departure from Normal	Snowfall	Departure from Normal	Average Temperature	Departure from Normal
Charleston	5.72"	+2.83"	0	-1.8"	44.8	+1.4
Danville	4.42"	+1.40"	0	-1.9"	44.7	+2.7
Decatur	2.99"	-0.40"	0	-1.9"	45.3	+2.6
Effingham	3.82"	+0.55"	0	-1.7"	46.1	+3.9
Flora	5.30"	+1.38"	0	-1.0"	47.3	+3.8
Galesburg	2.41"	-0.35"	M	M	40.2	+2.2
Havana	2.32"	-0.49"	3.0"	-0.1"	N/A	N/A
Jacksonville	3.85"	+1.13"	0.5"	-1.8"	44.5	+3.8
Lincoln	2.98"	+0.38"	1.1"	-0.6"	44.5	+3.4
Normal	2.50"	-0.21"	2.5"	+1.0"	42.0	+3.8
Olney	7.67"	+3.33"	0	-1.1"	46.5	+3.6
Paris	4.02"	+1.12"	0	-2.6"	43.2	+2.3
Peoria	3.19"	+0.39"	1.9"	-0.8"	43.9	+3.3
Springfield	3.30"	+0.67"	2.4"	-0.1"	45.6	+3.5
Tuscola	4.64"	+1.83"	2.0"	0	43.7	+3.4
Urbana	3.30"	+0.46"	0.5"	-2.1"	N/A	N/A

The following links are the monthly climate summaries for area cities. Only the summaries for Peoria, Springfield, and Lincoln are considered "official", meaning they are the station of record for their respective locations. The other summaries are "supplemental", meaning another location in the area is the official climate station for the city.

Peoria -- Peoria International Airport
Springfield -- Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport
Lincoln -- National Weather Service Office
Champaign -- University of Illinois-Willard Airport
Decatur -- Decatur Airport
Lawrenceville -- Lawrenceville-Vincennes International Airport
Mattoon -- Coles County Memorial Airport

Climate data for other cities is available at http://w2.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=ilx

April Look Ahead:

Official outlooks from NOAA's Climate Predication center show higher chances for above normal precipitation (left image below) and temperatures (right image below) for central and southeast Illinois.