March 2023 is coldest March on record for Phoenix in 30 years
Spring in the Valley of the Sun is typically ushered in by sunny skies and warm desert days, though this March defied expectations with its below average temperatures and rain — marking it the coldest March in more than 30 years.
The National Weather Service in Phoenix announced on Saturday that March 2023 was the coldest on record for the city since the turn of the century. The month had an average temperature of 61.8 degrees, the coldest March average recorded since 1991, when the average temperature was 60.32 degrees.
March 2023 had an average high temperature of 72.2 degrees and an average low temperature of 51.5 degrees, according to data from the weather service in Phoenix.
The weather service said March in Phoenix typically begins with an average high temperature of 74 degrees and ends with an average high temperature of 82 degrees as the month warms.
The drop in this March's seasonal averages is the result of several Pacific weather patterns that brought rain, winds and cool temperatures to the Valley as they moved over Arizona, according to Sean Benedict, a meteorologist for the weather service in Phoenix.
"We had a lot of Pacific troughs this year that just kept us cooler," Benedict said. "We were never really able to warm up, and if we did, we only warmed up for a few days, barely reaching near normal before the next system came through and dropped us back down."
The repeated storm systems over Phoenix sometimes dropped temperatures as low as 15 degrees below normal, according to the meteorologist.
Those weather patterns were also responsible for making this March the wettest in three years, with a total of 1.47 inches of rainfall. That much spring precipitation has not been seen in the Valley since March of 2020, which received 1.94 inches of rainfall.
April is expected to bring warmer temperatures to the Valley, though not until the middle of the month. The Climate Prediction Center outlook sees odds tilted toward below normal for the first part of April, but predicts the middle part of April will trend above normal.
According to Benedict, that is the result of a storm system expected to move over the region on Monday. The system will follow a few days of normal temperatures before its onset cools the region back down to 15 degrees below normal.
The cool-down won't last long, as the higher angle of the April sun allows for the Valley to warm out of cold fronts much quicker, Benedict said. Phoenix area residents can expect the cool-down to last for a few days before the weather jumps back to average temperatures.
“It looks like there will be strong high pressure building across the Western U.S., so we may finally be pushing more towards the above normal temperature range as far as the early to middle portions of April," Benedict said.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: March 2023 was coldest on record for metro Phoenix 30 years
