Monthly review March 2022

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The spring month of March presented itself in our region with a mean temperature of 5.1 °C as 1.3 degrees too warm compared to the climate reference period 1961-1990.

The sun shone for a total of 235 hours. This corresponds to a considerable plus of 126 hours. This set a new March record since records of sunshine duration began. On March 17 and March 29 the Sahara greeted us with its dust, so that on March 17 (Fig.1) the sun was only visible as a dull disk for almost the whole day.   

The sum of all single measurements of precipitation reached 19.7 mm in Coswig in March. Thus, the monthly sum corresponded to 53 % of the reference value for this month. We thus registered a very dry month. The previous precipitation annual balance 2022 thus decreased to a plus to only 11 mm. At the station Dresden-Klotzsche, only 15.1 mm was measured. Thus, this March here proved to be the second driest since 1961 (after 1984).

In the entire area between the Baltic Sea and roughly the northern border of Saxony, there was virtually no precipitation at all in March 2022. In many places, extreme drought prevails there.

 

Weather pattern:

The exceptionally sunny and dry weather in Germany was characterized by the prevalence of extensive and powerful high-pressure areas, with High "Peter" (Fig.2 / referred to as the "Monumental High"), which dominated the weather almost until the end of the month, even setting new air pressure records for the month of March (about 1052 hPa) over Denmark and northern Germany around March 20.