The period in the middle of March from yesterday through a week from Saturday is interesting in that all of the Fargo-Moorhead daily record high temperatures come from just four years.
This stretch of twelve days contains two records from 1910, three from 1911, one from 1981, and six from 2012. If you consider the whole month, 19 of the 31 record highs come from just five years; the six from 2012, the one from 1981, four from 1911, three from 1910, and five from 2000.
The reason for these clusters is that these years all had the same conditions. There was very little winter snowfall which melted quickly, exposing the black soil. These springs also had a warm, dry weather pattern which allowed for lots of sunshine to warm the black soil and then heat the air.
The same conditions are present this spring. How many record highs will we get before the pattern shifts back to cooler weather?
