Late storm yields fourth snowiest March on record

With classmates undoubtedly enjoying the warmer temperatures of Southern beaches, Greencastle High School senior T.J. Bollman spends the Monday of his spring break clearing snow away from the entrance of Shuee's Furniture and Mattress on West Franklin Street. Even with a Greencastle-area weather spotter reporting 5.5 inches of snowfall, the worst of the winter storm missed central Putnam County, with areas as nearby as Bainbridge and Roachdale reporting around 10 inches of snowfall. A high temperature of 33 degrees was recorded Monday, nearly 19 degrees colder than the average high. One year ago Monday, the thermometer reached 71 degrees.

If you can believe the weather forecast over the next several days, no more accumulating snow is anticipated in central Indiana.

So if it's safe to close the books on snowfall for winter 2012-13 (thanks, Mr. Groundhog), west-central Indiana will post a 34-inch snowfall figure for the season.

That's about four times what west-central Indiana received during the winter of 2011-12 when just a nine-inch total was recorded for the whole season. Areas of the state got that much or more on Sunday and Monday.

Meanwhile, the 14.4 inches of snowfall recorded to date for March 2013 equates to the fourth snowiest March on record in the Indianapolis area.

It all happened because of an area of low pressure that moved along the Ohio River during the evening Sunday and lingered to the east of central Indiana on Monday. The result was snow, heavy in some areas, across central Indiana.

The heaviest snow fell north of Interstate 70, with some locations receiving more than 10 inches of snow.

Bloomingdale in Parke County recorded the most snow at 11.5 inches (a figure that included three inches of melted snow from Sunday morning). Gusty winds created drifts over a foot deep in some areas.

The snowfall of 6.2 inches at Indianapolis for the calendar day of March 24 set a record for that date. An additional 2.9 inches fell on March 25, bringing the total at Indianapolis to 9.1 inches for the storm.

The snow depth of seven inches at Indianapolis on March 25 set a record for the date.

It is only the third time since records began being taken in 1871 that a snowfall of four inches or more has happened so late in the season.

Previously that happened on April 9, 1897, and again on March 24, 1912.

In other March snowfalls of note, March 19-20 in 1996, nearly a foot of snow fell at the airport, with eight inches falling in a storm on March 11, 2000. On March 21, 2006, 5.4 inches of snow covered Indianapolis.

"From March 24 going forward, we have not seen this much snow from a snowstorm in all the records we have looked at," meteorologist Mike Ryan of the National Weather Service (NWS) office at Indianapolis said this week.

"It is not uncommon to see snow into late March and even into early April," he said. "However, it is usually not to this extent."

Annually the average for snowfall for Indianapolis and central Indiana is just under 26 inches, but with Indianapolis recording 33.3 inches of snow by early Monday, winter 2012-13 now ranks as the 18th snowiest year ever in Indianapolis.

While March 2012 was the warmest March on record for Indiana, averaging 61.7 degrees at Indianapolis, this March has been running 6-10 degrees below normal much of the month.

"Temperatures will warm up at the end of the week, but it will still be about a six-degree, if not higher, temperature deficit," Ryan noted.

Normal high for this time of year is 57 degrees.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service forecast indicates April and May will be at or below normal temperatures.

"With such a cold start to the spring, I think we will have temperatures near normal or below normal," meteorologist Ryan said. "I am not saying we will be cool all spring. I think there's a chance for greater wetter-than-normal conditions."

NWS meteorologists think there is a greater likelihood for greater wet conditions through May, which will be a radical change from what Hoosiers saw last year.

While May and June are typically two of Indiana's wetter months, last year they were two of the drier months, which led to the drought conditions and excessive heat.

"When we get to the end of May," Ryan suggested, "we may find this year being a much more normal spring although much wetter."