Our recently finished month of March has rewritten the record books in the Upper Midwest and in some respects, was relatively warmer than the iconic months during the dust bowl era! The featured chart presents the monthly record temperatures for Des Moines. The top chart presents the record temperature along with the year it occurred and the sigma departure the value was from current day average. The bottom chart presents the amount the current record is warmer than the second warmest month on record. The value of 3.5 sigma is shown for March 2012, which is larger than any of the other months. The sigma value represents how far the observation is away from the mean distribution of climatology. It provides a simple, but not complete, means to compare different months of the year. Regardless of that comparison, the bottom chart shows another exceptional aspect by besting the previous record by over four degrees! In this regard, this month is the most exceptionally warmest as well! Amazing to think about what we just experienced in the context of climatology for Iowa!

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Tags:   march   month   climate