Through this second week in March, our average high was about 50 degrees F in central Missouri. While fairly normal for this time of year, that average included one day in the 70s and a couple in the 30s. Over the years, meteorologists develop all kinds of "averages" for any date but, in any given year, the variance may be dramatic.
For a month like March, it is purely academic to use phrases like "unseasonably warm" or "much colder than average." Typified by frequent Pacific fronts which move across the country every few days, March is a roller coaster of warm and cold periods. Ahead of each front, warm, humid air streams northward from the Gulf of Mexico while, behind the front, cold, Canadian air plunges into the Heartland. By late March, as the higher sun angle and more northerly jet stream begin to moderate these erratic swings, warmer temperatures prevail. As a consequence, storm systems associated with the fronts become more potent and we enter the season of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.
