Snow Cover in March

Determining the temperatures in the month of March can be quite tricky, especially when there is snow on the ground. What makes March different from the winter months is that you have a higher sun angle. This gives more direct sunlight to the earth's surface allowing for the temperatures to warm much easier (diagram shone below). (These are not the exact sun angles for Sioux Falls but you get the idea. If you would like to calculate the exact sun angle for where you live, just go to this website, Click Here, and follow the steps.)

Because of this, you often see the snow melting on sunny days even if the temperature is below freezing. This is what makes forecasting temperatures so difficult in the spring because we have to try and determine just how much of that snow is going to melt. When the snow finally does melt away, the temperature can be some 20 degrees warmer then when there is snow cover. For example, we are forecasting a warm up through Thursday. Well, if Wednesday is warm enough to melt all of the snow, then Thursday will likely be much warmer then we are predicting. So instead of having highs in the mid to upper 40's on Thursday, we could see highs in the mid to upper 50's. At this point, it doesn't look like that will happen but we will have to watch it very closely.

So, much like today, there will be a large temperature contrast between places with and without snow. This can be seen on a forecast map for todays highs across southwestern South Dakota where there is very little snow.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz