March was the windiest on record in the Twin Cities. Your messy hair was not lying to you.
Although we had some beautiful days last month temperature-wise, they were typically ruined by the wind.
Tyler Hasenstein with the National Weather Service explains why.
"March already tends to be one of our windier months of the year," Hasenstein explains. "It's usually during, kind of those transition seasons between winter and summer and then summer to winter, where most of our higher wind events tend to happen. The reason for that being we have stronger surface-based systems that usually have stronger winds next to them."
March is typically pretty windy. But for the month we just experienced to be the windiest March on record? That's saying something. Windiness is commonly expected in the months of April and November. But in March, many climate stations in the state have reported 12 or more days with wind gusts over 30 mph. Rochester reported 18 such days and Redwood Falls 17 days. Several climate stations also saw wind gusts over 50 mph.
Such frequency of high winds is uncommon for Minnesota and may be a precursor to a very windy April (which has already been the case). April is normally the windiest month of the year.
"It just ended up being where we had a relatively active month as far as active weather systems that all produced strong winds in the area," Hasenstein says. "And it also being a shoulder season meant that we already kind of run high for the winds regardless. So the combination of all those factors led to the not extreme winds, but very windy conditions throughout the month."
As for what to expect during the summer, Hasenstein says the systems that produce stronger winds will be more on the weaker side. Meaning, less wind.
"Our stronger winds from the summer tend to be related to thunderstorms and producing stronger winds from those storms which tend to be both smaller in area and shorter duration, so it tends not to be as windy overall," he adds.
And that sounds a little bit better.
Speaking of better, after a cool - and windy - morning Wednesday, temps are back into the 60s during the afternoon. WCCO-TV Chief Meteorologist Chris Shaffer says there's a weather hiccup coming Thursday with some rain and the potential for severe storms, especially in southern Minnesota, before a really nice Easter weekend.
