The saying usually goes ‘March comes in like a lion and goes out like a like lamb’ but March of 2021 both came in and left as a lion. The month started off with near-record heat, which was followed by a storm system that produced an area-wide soaking. The heaviest rainfall of the entire month came on the second day of March, when many areas saw more than an inch of rainfall.
March finished with just seeing around 2.82 inches of rain, which was 1.13
inches below normal. The drier weather led to both a reduced amount of thunderstorm
days and less days with dense fog. During an average month of March the area
sees 3 thunderstorm events; this year we only saw two. And even though there
was fog around, only one day saw dense fog- usually the amount is around 3
days.
Keeping with the warm theme, March 2021 produced the third month in a row with
temperatures above average. The average temperatures was 1.9 degrees above
normal. The warmth was helped out by records highs on March 26th of
90 degrees and 89 degrees on March 31st.
The second highest heat index ever was reported on March 27th
of 95 degrees. (The all-time March record is 97 degrees which was set back on
3/28/2020.)
Mother Nature left the TPC Sawgrass alone, leaving it with some of the most beautiful weather in the tournament's history from March 11 to March 14. A massive ridge of high pressure was the cause of the beautiful weather. In fact some of the highest pressure readings since March of 1993 were reported. The pressure reached a high of 1035.4 mb (30.57 inches of mercury).
Besides the heat, the biggest weather story was the month’s strongest Nor’easter
ever seen during the month. The rare development of a low off the coast produced
multiple days of rough seas and strong winds from March 20 – 22. Wind gusts
ranged between 40-50 mph. Luckily, the beaches didn’t see too many problems
from erosion.
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