Monthly review March 2023

The first spring month of March was clearly too warm in our region and also quite humid with below-
average sunshine duration. Compared to the climate reference period 1961-1990, the month was 2.0 degrees too mild with a mean temperature of 5.9 °C (rank 16 since 1961). The month of March has been warmer by an average of 2.1 degrees since 1961.

The sun shone for a total of 103 hours. This corresponds to a minus of about 4 hours. In the months
of March since 1961, however, the average sunshine duration in Dresden has increased significantly
by 42 hours.

The sum of all individual precipitation measurements in March reached 61.8 mm in Coswig (70.1 mm
in Dresden-Klotzsche). The monthly total thus corresponded to 167 % of the reference value. We
thus registered a rather wet month. With March, the first quarter of 2023 now even shows a precipitation surplus. The annual precipitation balance so far in 2023 thus reached a plus of 30 mm.

At the Dresden-Klotzsche weather station, however, the precipitation total in the March months has
decreased by an average of 5 mm in the period 1961-2023.

Weather pattern:

Frequent low pressure and westerly weather conditions dominated the weather pattern in March
(Fig.1 and Fig.2). This was also reflected in the ups and downs of the temperature values due to the
alternation of warm and cold air. The first strong frontal thunderstorms occurred locally, e.g. on 10
March in Dresden-Klotzsche. In our region, as can always be observed with westerly weather
conditions, the total rainfall was nowhere near the Saxon or even the German average, since regional
and local lee effects (Föhn) lead to a weakening of the approaching rain areas.