March 02

Cincinnati 5NW #13 (Hamilton County) Ronald E. Rothhaas Jr. - March seemed very wintry, but only by virtue of the fact that it was the first "normal" winter month. Temperatures and precipitation were within a fraction of normal. The 4th was the coldest day of the winter, and the first of 2002 with a high below freezing. The high was 26F and the low was 9F, also the coldest of the winter. Snowfall was again almost non-existent. Enough fell on the morning of the 3rd (0.2) for us to salt our church lot, but it melted off everything by the time church started. Why all the salt!? While rainfall was normal, it fell on 15 of 31 days, making it seem very wet. 1 gusty spring-like thunderstorm occurred on the evening of the 15th, but a London-like 14 of 31 days saw foggy conditions. A minor icing event occurred on the 25th and 26th. While glaze occurred on mainly trees, it was notably the first and only glaze event of the entire winter, and it was 3 days into spring! Interestingly, I had been out the evening of the 25th. When I went to my truck in the rain, it was wet with no ice. When I got home, again all was wet but inside my Computemp registered 31F. Puzzled, curiosity got the best of me and I sloshed through the rain to my instrument shelter, concerned the thermometer was wrong. However, the shelter and its surroundings were coated in ice, so all is well!

Cleves 3NW #55 (Hamilton County) James F Davis- March ended up wet and slightly below normal in temperature. Had my all time max wind gust of 44 mph. Had the coldest min temperature this winter, 10 degrees.

Kent 2W #53 (Portage County) Eric E. Wertz - Measurable liquid equivalent precipitation occurred on 16 day and the monthly total of 3.16 inches was normal. Measurable snowfall occurred on 6 days and the monthly total snowfall of 10.2 inches was slightly above normal. The most notable snow events were 3.8 inches on the 21st-22nd, and 4.5 inches on the 25th. A total of 9 watches/warnings/advisories were issued during the month. An intense low pressure system and potent cold front moved through the region on the 9th causing a high wend gust of 46 m.p.h. at Kent 2W with even higher winds elsewhere and temperature drop of 30 degrees F within four hours. There were 3 thunderstorm days and 3 fog days. Glaze was noted on the 25th and 26th.

Middleburg Hts #51 (Cuyahoga County) DickVader - I was on vacation March 20-25 in Florida, but i had acess to the weather channel and free internet at this one motel so I knew the snow was coming to cleveland-in fact our plane was cancled on the 25th.

Munroe Falls 1WS #25 (Summit County) Larry Huff - High wind gust of 52 mph on the 9th set a new all-time record for this station (records began in 1992).

Newcomerstown 1S #106 (Tuscarawas County) Don Keating - There were 3 days with sleet, 3 days with fog and one with thunder. Highest pressure was 30.48 on the 11th and the lowest pressure was 29.53 on the 29th. There was 3/4" of sleet accumulation on the 25th while in Millersburg, a short distance away, there was 7" of snowfall.

Ottawa 4E #15 (Putnam County) Phil & Bonnie Higley - Month started out above normal & wet. Toward the middle, it got even warmer. Then winter came back into play giving us 6.0" on the ground by the 29th. By the time the end of the month came around, we were closer to normal.

Perrysville 4W #79 (Richland County) Katie Gerwig - March 2002 lived up to its reputation with an average high wind gust of 19.6 and a severe wind storm on the 9th which caused many area power outages and a record wind gust for this site of 54 mph. Average temperature was approximately 0.5 degrees above the monthly normal and precipitation slightly above normal with deepest snow of the season falling on the 25th (5.7").

Ravenna 1E #101 (Portage County) Rich Rabatin - Total snowfall for Ravenna 1E as of 4/3/02 is 28.13".

Springfield 2N #1 (Clark County) Dick Groeber - TEMPERATURE: The first week of the month saw the warmest and the coldest readings. The 4th low of 4 degrees Fahrenheit was not only the lowest of the month, but of the year and winter season as well. Three days later on the 7th, the high of 69 degrees was the high. The readings varied through the remainder of the month. Overall the averages were above normal.

PRECIPITATION: Three periods of notable totals stood out. The first was on the 2nd and 3rd totaling 0.59 inches with the only measurable snowfall at 0.3 inches. The second was the 15th through the 20th with 0.94 inches. The third was the 24th through the 26th with 0.42 inches from two major ice storms. This also gave the greatest one day total of 0.73 inches on the 26th for the year to date. Ice from the last storm system measured 0.5 inches on the ground.

WIND: Winds gusts to or above 30 miles per hour during the two periods. The first was the 8th through the 10th with peak gust of 52 miles per hour on the 9th which was the strongest of the year to date. The second was the 26th through the 28th with winds to 30 miles per hour during the ice storms.

Streetsboro 2N (Portage County) Vance Lunn - The temperature for the month was 1.7 degrees F above normal and the precipitation was 0.77 inch above normal. During the period from the 15th through the 28th, all days except for the 23rd had measurable precipitation and two significant snow events of 3.9 inches (21/22), and 5.1 inches (24/25) occurred. Maximum snow depth was 6 inches on the 1st. One day had thunder (during a snowfall on the 9th). One day had sleet. One day had freezing rain, and one day had fog.

Toledo 5E (Lucas County) Mike Bielski - There were 3 record lows for the month..... 3/4... 6 previous.. 14,1995 ; 3/5... 15 previous.. 17,1988 ; 3/28.. 21 previous.. 24,1990 ; maximum snow depth was 8" 3/26 ; coldest daytime high was 18 on 4/4 with a record low morning temperature of 6.....Thunder was heard on 3/29..On 3/25, 4.6 inches of snow fell....On 3/26, 4.7 inches of snow fell, along with freezing rain that accumulated to 1/4"

Wooster 7N #16 (Wayne County) Jack Sisler - Pretty much had everything but hail. Had damaging winds of 60mph with the frontal passage with scattered damage and power outages on the 9th. Received 5.4 inches of snowfall on the 25th along with freezing rain. This was the most 24-hour snowfall since December 2000. Temperatures for the month were about two degrees above normal and precipitation was average.

OWON #

Station

Mean Max Temp

Mean Min Temp

Mean Temp

High Temp

Date

Low Temp

Date

Total Prec

Max 24hr Prec

Date

# Prec Days

Total Snow

Max 24hr Snow

Date

# of 1"+ Snow Days

Max Wind Gust

Date

Akron/Canton

47.3

28.2

37.8

3/8

3/4

3.88

0.72

15,16

7.6

3.9

3/25

3/9

Aurora

47.7

27.0

37.3

3/8

3/4

3.28

0.55

3/25

10.6

4.9

3/25

Cincinnati

51.5

32.2

41.9

3/8

3/4

4.60

1.38

15,16

0.4

0.2

3/21

3/9

Cincinnati 5NW

52.3

33.8

43.1

3/29

3/4

4.27

0.86

3/26

0.3

0.2

3/3

3/21

Centerville 1W

51.0

31.3

41.1

3/8

3/4

4.31

0.94

3/26

0.0

3/9

Cleveland

46.3

28.5

37.4

3/8

3/4

4.13

0.65

3/26

15.9

6.9

3/25

3/9

Cleves 3NW

52.8

32.4

42.6

3/8

3/4

5.24

1.33

25,26

0.2

3/3

3/9

Columbus

50.5

32.1

41.3

3/8

3/4

3.45

1.16

25,26

1.4

1.2

3/25

3/9

Dayton

48.2

30.5

39.4

3/8

3/4

3.89

1.01

25,26

0.5

0.3

3/25

3/9

Kent 2E

48.2

28.4

38.3

3/8

3/4

3.21

0.44

3/25

10.4

4.5

3/25

3/9

Kent 2W

47.4

27.5

37.5

3/8

3/4

3.16

0.44

25,29

10.2

4.5

3/25

3/9

Lagrange 2SW

47.4

25.9

36.7

3/8

3/4

3.69

0.63

3/29

8.3

3.8

3/25

3/9

Lodi 2S

48.5

28.3

38.4

3/8

3/4

3.67

0.75

3/25

10.8

8.0

3/25

3/9

Mansfield

45.6

27.5

36.6

3/8

3/4

3.81

0.67

3/9

9.6

5.9

3/25

3/9

Middleburg Hts

3.13

0.71

3/25

10.0

7.0

3/25

Munroe Falls 1SW

48.7

27.3

38.0

3/8

3/4

3.59

0.79

3/26

8.3

4.0

3/26

3/9

106

Newcomerstown 1S

50.6

28.4

39.5

3/8

3/4

3.49

0.74

3/26

2.0

1.2

3/21

3/29

North Ridgeville 1N

47.9

27.4

37.6

3/8

3/4

3.74

0.64

3/25

14.9

6.8

3/25

3/9

Ottowa 4E

46.0

27.4

36.7

3/26

3/4

3.15

0.74

3/26

6.7

6.0

3/26

3/9

Perry 3SE

44.5

27.8

36.2

3/15

3/4

4.22

0.57

3/29

21.6

6.0

3/4

Perrysville 4W

48.5

29.9

39.2

3/8

3/4

3.36

0.61

3/25

7.0

5.7

3/25

3/9

101

Ravenna 1E

52.2

30.7

41.4

3/8

3/4

15.08

0.47

3/30

11.0

3.5

3/25

3/21

Rockbridge 4W

51.4

29.9

40.6

3/8

3/4

4.27

1.35

25,26

0.2

3/3

113

Sabina

3.51

0.88

3/25

Sandusky 1N

44.6

28.2

36.4

3/8

3/4

3.80

0.72

3/29

9.6

4.0

3/26

3/9

Sharonville 2NE

52.1

33.8

43.0

3/8

3/4

4.42

0.74

3/15

3/21

3/9

Springfield 2N

50.7

30.5

40.6

3/8

3/4

4.06

0.73

3/26

0.8

3/3

3/9

105

Stow 1SE

53.4

31.2

42.3

3/15

3/4

3.71

0.54

3/26

11.1

4.9

3/25

Streetsboro 2N

48.2

27.7

37.9

3/8

3/4

3.57

0.59

3/15

11.8

5.1

24,25

3/9

112

Sugarcreek 2SW

48.7

29.8

39.3

3/8

3/4

3.56

0.75

3/25

4.6

4.0

3/25

3/9

Toledo

45.5

27.6

36.6

3/8

3/4

3.07

0.77

3/27

11.4

4.7

3/26

3/9

Toledo 5NE

43.9

27.1

35.5

3/8

3/4

2.98

0.78

3/26

12.0

4.7

3/26

3/9

Wooster 7N

48.3

29.1

38.7

3/8

3/4

3.09

0.60

3/25

7.1

5.4

3/25

3/9

Youngstown

47.4

27.8

37.6

3/8

3/22

3.17

0.55

25,26

10.6

6.1

3/25

3/9

Zanesville 6N

50.5

31.2

41.2

3/8

3/3

3.54

0.84

3/26

3/9

freezing rain and some sleet has fallen in the toledo area this early morning....current temperature is 30.5.....my car is covered with ice....winds are NE @ 11 mph

On a side note.... between 3:20 and 3:45 p.m. I went to a higher area just west of here near Orange in eastern Coshocton county. I set up my Kestrel 4000 to measure wind speeds. The highest I measured was 38.6 and the 20 minute average was 24.8 mph. Even with a 62 degree reading at the time, that wind chills ya to the bone, especially with no jacket on.

It's been a very breezy day. Had a wind gust of 63 M.P.H. + . Had ice for a little bit also.

The winds are still blowing 45 MPH. out of the WSW. As of right now it's 30 degree's (5:50 p.m.) dropping off very fast. The baro. is going back up at 29.72 at a rate of 0.07" an hr.

The N.W.S. issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for this after noon & this evening.

I was in Fairlawn/Montrose area (Summit County) when the front came through,

increasing winds during the day. HIGH WIND WARNING issued early for winds to 70 MPH. This verifies today!

cold front swept the area from west to east, primarily the winds from the synoptic situation dictate the wind field. However, the dynamically forced squall line that did develop aided in bringing down(downward transport) of the high velocity winds from 2 to 3K Ft. up, which were 60 to 70 Knots! Cold fropa with damaging winds hit the STATION at 1710EST, downing a large tree. Tree approximately 60 FT. long and with a diameter of 3 Ft. This tree was alive and no leaves obviously present. The tree falls between our home and the

neighbors thankfully!! Heavy rain showers accompany the front but pass quickly leaving only.22".Precip. changes to ice pellets then snow by obs time. WOW, what a day!

Yesterday's high winds did quite a bit of damage in our area (see story below).

High winds rip through areaBy Sheri King As a line of thunderstorms ripped through southwest Ohio Saturday afternoon, winds of up to 70 miles per hour toppled trees and downed power lines, said Jim Lott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington. In Middletown, a strong gust ripped a steel-girded canopy from Powers Auto Sales, 107 Charles St., at about 3:15 p.m. The sheared-off canopy crushed four cars and damaged seven more as it was carried along by the gusts, owner Rick Powers said. Powers said the canopy was 80 feet long, 40 feet wide and 16 feet high ‹ and the wind wadded it up like a discarded gum wrapper. ³It looks like Ground Zero down here,² Powers said. ³I don¹t know the extent of the damage, because there¹s just so much of it.² No one was injured from the falling canopy. Powers estimated the cost of the destroyed canopy to be about $50,000, but said he had not yet calculated the hit to his stock of used cars. Tom Lindsay, owner of the Lindsay¹s Shell station on North Verity Parkway, said he lost electricity about 2:45 p.m., but when it came back on several hours later, he was still out of business. ³My computer got whacked, so we can¹t pump gas or operate the register,² he said. Lindsay said when he called corporate headquarters, company officials told him other Shell service stations throughout Ohio were experiencing the same problem. Throughout the afternoon, lights were out in a number of fast food restaurants and Middletown police directed traffic at several intersections where lights were out. Among the more prominent locations where power was out were along North Verity Parkway and the Ohio 73-Breiel Boulevard intersection. Elsewhere around the city, Middletown police reported extensive power outages and trees down along roads. Middletown Regional Hospital personnel reported several injuries from storm-related vehicle accidents and treated one woman who had a tree fall through her house. The woman¹s identity and condition were not known Saturday. In Monroe, an uprooted tree in front of Mount Pleasant Retirement Village knocked out power lines, cutting electricity to much of the city, including Britton Lane, Main Street, Todhunter Road and the Ohio 63 corridor, police officer Gregg Myers said. ³We called in four off-duty officers to help direct traffic because all the traffic lights along 63 were out,² Myers said. The report of the uprooted tree was received at about 3 p.m., but power was restored in Monroe by 5 p.m., he said. Reports of felled trees and power lines across roadways were received from all corners of Butler and Warren counties, said sheriff¹s office personnel. The Butler sheriff¹s office also received numerous reports of storm-related traffic accidents, though none believed to have anything more than minor injuries. The Warren County Sheriff¹s Office reported power outages in Franklin and Mason, among other locations. Numerous attempts to reach Cinergy Gas and Electric officials Saturday were not successful.

Two more stories on yesterday's cold front passage. It was the wildest weather day we've had in a long time.

Winds exceeding 60 mph stripped bark from trees, power lines from poles and cars from streets Saturday afternoon in Greater Cincinnati.

The area wasn't alone. The powerful gusts caused damage throughout most of Indiana and Ohio and toppled a tree in Lorain, near Cleveland, killing a man who was crushed underneath.

But the strong winds calmed considerably nearly as quickly as they came. By nightfall, the only evidence of problems was darkened neighborhoods across the Tristate.

“We have 5,000 customers without power,” Cinergy spokesman Dave Woodburn said late Saturday night, adding that all customers should have their power back sometime today.

Rain that began in the morning started falling in horizontal sheets as a strong cold front moved in from the west. At the peak of the storm — around noon — about 63,000 Cinergy customers were without power.

Many of the problems were at individual residences, but interruptions also affected neighborhoods and business districts from Clermont County to Price Hill to Northern Kentucky.

Runways were shut down for about 10 minutes at the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport, causing minimal delays, and the airport lost power to some outside gates, said spokesman Ted Bushelman.

Police and fire crews in Cincinnati kept busy responding to uprooted trees, downed power lines and minor wrecks. Police said calls for service were about double that of a typical Saturday, but they reported no major damage.

“We really took a beating,” Hamilton County dispatcher Tori Britton said. “It was nuts.”

She said calls came in by the hundreds — many on 911 emergency lines — from residents wanting to know when power would be restored.

“We processed 1,100 details since 2 o'clock,” she said. “A lot of it was on the west side of town, in Colerain (Township).”

By late Saturday, emergency dispatchers from Butler County to Covington said most of the cleanup was over.

Elsewhere in Ohio, though, the storms leveled a mobile home in Pleasant View in Fayette County. No one was seriously injured.

In Lorain, firefighters used chain saws to get a 41-year-old man out from under a tree that fell on him in a residential neighborhood. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Winds of 85 mph were recorded in the Columbus suburb of Grove City, and area roads were closed for the removal of downed power lines.

The Fairgrounds Coliseum in Columbus temporarily lost power Saturday night, delaying the start of a boys high school basketball playoff game by about two hours.

In Canton, Interstate 77 was closed briefly after overhead highway signs fell to the road because of the wind, police said.

Locally, National Weather Service forecaster John Center said the highest winds were recorded at Wilmington (61 mph) and Dayton, Ohio, (58 mph) and Covington (56).

The front chased out the Tristate's brief spell of warm temperatures. Saturday's high of 63 will be followed by a high today of 40.

A rainstorm accompanied by 70 mph winds lashed the Miami Valley on Saturday, toppling trees and tearing down power lines.

The damage was particularly severe in Sugarcreek Twp., where gusty winds ripped an air conditioning unit off the roof off the Lowe’s store at 6300 Wilmington Pike, leaving a hole in the roof and forcing the evacuation of about 200 people from the store, said Fire Chief Randall J. Pavlak.

High winds also caused outdoor storage sheds to be blown around in the Lowe’s parking lot, hitting one customer in the head and damaging parked vehicles. Another customer got broken glass in the eye, Pavlak said. Displays just outside the building also blew into and smashed two of the store's glass doors.

The two injured customers and an employee who cut his hand were in good condition at Miami Valley and Southview hospitals Saturday afternoon.

Assistant Fire Chief Gary Branstetter said the store sustained an estimated $10,000 to $15,000 damage and will remain closed until county building inspectors can determine how bad the damage is. An inspection is expected today.

"We don't know when it will reopen," Branstetter said. "They have lost structural integrity of the roof."

The wind caused other problems in Sugarcreek Twp. at about the same time, Pavlak said. On Waynesville Road, a car crashed into a ditch after swerving to avoid a falling utility pole that had snapped in half, he said. There were no injuries. A utility pole also snapped on Carpenter Road, and on Washington Mill Road, downed power lines set a tree on fire.

The wind also brought wires down in about 10 places in Beavercreek and Dayton, officials said. Montgomery County sheriff's Sgt. Ken Greco said there had been many trees down, especially in Washington Twp., but the damage was typical for a thunderstorm. "We haven't been slaughtered," he said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Johnstone said the collision of warm air here and cold air rushing in from the west created the storm. The cold front brought winds of about 30 to 40 mph, with gusts up to 70 mph.

Winds were expected to subside overnight to 15 to 20 mph, Johnstone said. Today's expected high is 37 degrees, but on Monday, temperatures should rise to 50.

You have to remember spring has a lot of changing weather. How many of you remember the Palm Sunday tornado out break's? I do and I am not that old. (46) We kind have this of type weather until the middle of April. A year without a summer did happen! Where there was snow on the ground in July & Aug..(1816 for those of you that don't remember.)

We are having lt. rain here now with a outside temperature of 38 degree's with a hi temperature today of 44.