Texas Climate Report: March 2005

The month of March started off with little out of the ordinary occurring across much of the state. Temperatures started off slightly below normal, especially across the eastern half of the state. Precipitation was not a major problem in most areas, with little in the way of heavy rainfall. However, Galveston received 1.12" on the 2nd and 1.67" on the 7th.

Again, severe weather and precipitation were absent for the most part from the weather pattern in the week that followed. The 12th was the warmest day for the month for most first-order stations, but was quickly followed by an abrupt cooling trend. The 16th was reported to have the lowest average temperature for this March across most of the state.

Severe weather finally made its way into the picture on the 19th with numerous reports of large hail. Hail 2.00" in diameter was reported in Caldwell, with numerous reports of 1.75" hail across Southeast Texas. Temperatures were well below normal across the state starting off the third week of March but recovered to more normal levels by the end of the week.

The first tornado reports of the month came on the 25th, with two reports in Travis County just outside of Austin. The end of March brought air much cooler than normal across much of the state, with many first-order stations reporting temperatures more than ten degrees below average on the 26th and 27th. The 26th was also a soggy day across North Central Texas with rainfall totals of 0.91" in Dallas, 1.23" in Denton, and 1.06" in Paris.

For the month in general, stations had temperatures that were just slightly below normal, with the exception being Deep South Texas. The Edwards Plateau, South Central, and Upper Coastal regions experienced above normal precipitation, while North Central and East Texas were drier than average.

Monthly Summary for Selected Cities

Monthly Extremes

New Monthly Records

Climatic Averages for April