March Summary/First Week Of April More Of Same

March 2017 was a very warm, windy, and dusty month, but one with almost no precipitation here in southeastern Arizona. Rainfall here along the Rillito in the north part of the City of Tucson amounted to only 0.06" during the early morning hours of March 28th. There were Trace sprinkles on two other days. This was the second driest March in my 18 years of records here - driest was 0.03" in 2013. Four of the last seven years have seen 0.08" or less here - certainly a dry trend for recent years.

There may have been thunder early on the 28th, or the storms may have stayed a bit too far south.

Only 6 mornings had lows in the 30s F and two of those days dropped to 32 F. Of interest early in month was the morning low of 34 F here followed by an afternoon high at airport of 87 F on the 8th. A summary of heat records for the warmest Tucson March on record is available from the NWS at:  

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/twc/climate/monthly/mar17.php

The first full week of April (today through 05:00 pm MST next Monday) starts out much like March. The GEFS temperature plumes for the week are above (note that there is a substantial cool bias in these models and the morning forecast from the NWS indicates high temperatures at the airport of 91 F on the 6th and 7th, before a cool front passes on the weekend. Gusty winds are indicated during a number of afternoons (just below).

The 00 UTC WRF-GFS forecast of precipitation for the coming week is shown at bottom. California's VERY wet cool season continues unabated over the northern half of the state, while dry conditions rule down here.