A cold first couple of weeks in March ensured that last month was colder and drier than usual in Kamloops, but it was nowhere near record breaking.

The cold start came on the heels of February’s polar vortex like conditions before a sudden spike to near normal temperatures in mid-March.

“Even though it had been so cold in February, and it was a cold start to March, we did get the indication that it was going to warm up,” said Environment Canada Meteorologist Bobby Sekhon.

“Sometimes it can take the cold air a while to get out, but we were confident that the warmer weather would be there, and sure enough, it did show up.”

Sekhon added there were a few days of note last month.

“March 12 was when the high temperature that day broke 10 C, something that we hadn’t seen in over a month and a half,,” he said.

“And then we hit about 18.7 C on the 21st of March so you can see that transition from that end of the first week into that third week of March.”

The average temperature in March was 2.4 degrees below normal.

And while March in Kamloops is usually dry, it was drier than normal in 2019 – we saw 8.4 millimetres of precipitation, down from the average 12.8 millimetres.

Sekhon pointed out 2019 was the 31st coldest march on record and the 53rd driest on the books since record keeping began in 1892.