March sets heat record


Staff and wire report

YOUNGSTOWN

March 2012 will go down in weather history as one for the record books in the Mahoning Valley and Ohio.

The Valley set a new record average temperature of 49.5 degrees, beating the old average temperature of 48.1 degrees in 1946.

The average high temperature in the Youngstown-Warren metro area was 60.3 degrees. From March 20 through March 23, the official high temperature was 80 degrees or above.

Unseasonably high temperatures also have made last month the warmest March recorded in the Cleveland and Cincinnati areas and set records elsewhere in Ohio.

The average temperature in the Cincinnati area was about 55 degrees, well above the average 43 degrees. Cleveland had an average high of just above 61 degrees. The temperatures in both cities narrowly beat records set in 1946.

The National Weather Service says Akron, Cleveland, Toledo and Youngstown each tied or broke previous records with runs of eight or more straight days of high temperatures reaching at least 70 degrees.

Columbus logged record highs for individual days six times and set its all-time high temperature for March at 85 degrees.

Amid the balmy conditions, snowfall was exceedingly light. Only three inches fell on the Valley, compared to the average 10.9 inches. Some 14.4 inches fell on the area in March 2011, according to the weather service.

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