By Justin Grieser, Published: MARCH 29.
Traffic passes snow drifts near Colne in northern England, March 27, 2013. The weather this spring is in contrast to that of last March which was the third warmest on record.
Like much of the eastern U.S., Europe has been stubbornly cold this March. In spring’s absence, arctic air and heavy snowfall more typical of January have kept temperatures some 3 to 4?C below normal across the continent.
The Met Office reports this has been the UK's coldest March since 1962, with an average temperature 3?C (5.4 ?F) below normal. Through March 26, the mean national temperature was 2.5?C, making it the 4th coldest March since records began in 1910.
Provisional average March temperatures recorded in the UK in 2013. (Met Office)
Last weekend, a severe snowstorm buried parts of central England and Northern Ireland with up to a foot of snow. The storm brought whiteout conditions to some areas and caused thousands of newborn lambs to perish in the cold. Locations in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk measured 7 to 9 inches of snow on the ground as of March 24, which is exceptionally rare for so late in March.
Northern Ireland, on March 26, 2013. A Royal Air Force helicopter was deployed in Northern Ireland in a bid to reach remote farms where estimates suggest up to 10,000 animals have been buried beneath snowdrifts 20 feet (six metres) high. (See image below.)
In Germany, the cold has been especially relentless. A new press release from the German weather service (DWD) reports that this month was the second coldest March in 50 years, behind only 1987. It’s the opposite extreme of last year, when March 2012 was the country’s third warmest on record.
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