We have a saying in the US that the month of March "comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb", indicating that the earlier part of the month is often wintry and the latter few days can be very springlike. That was very true this year for our weather here in Fairbanks/ Ester. We experienced a large snowfall early in the month, probably the heaviest snowfall of the year (we received about 250 mm), which was followed by a week of very bitter cold with temperatures often below -30°C at night. And then, miraculously, in just a couple of days the weather warmed and for the last 2 weeks of the month we saw very warm temperatures climb to between 5 to 8°C each day. On at least one day, the temperature rose to +10°C, which I think was a record for that day.
The temperatures have cooled a little since the weekend, but it is still warm enough during the day to melt some of the snow pack. As you can guess, much of our snow has already melted leaving a crusty and icy snow pack behind. Today's temperature when I took these photos, at noon, was just at freezing, 0°C. I was unable to determine the depth of the snow pack since it was so icy I could not push a meter stick through it (remember that in February we had a rainstorm and so a lot of the lower part of the snow pack is fairly solid ice).
The sunshine is lovely! Today the sun rose at 7:04 am and will set at 8:48 pm, giving us 13 hours and 44 minutes of daylight. That is almost 3 and a half hours more than last month at this time.
