OUR harsh winter carried on for another ten days or so into March. Although still very chilly, at least it was now pleasant with light winds, plenty of sunshine and hardly any rain or snow. At Carlton, near Stokesley, we had six completely dry days in this spell, the same number as during the previous four months.

Nights were particularly frosty considering the lack of snow cover. Minima on the 7th or 8th were, surprisingly, widely the coldest for two months and at Whitby, since before Christmas.

Soil temperatures declined, too, despite the sunny days.

Typically at Carlton, they equalled the lowest of the winter down to a depth of 30cm. This shows that it is not until well after the equinox that the sun has the strength to counter the loss of heat from the ground at night.

By mid-month, temperatures recovered enough to suggest that, at last, spring had sprung. This was especially true on the Thursdays of the 18th and 25th, when 15C (almost 60F) was approached.

So, even though the first half of March was a remarkable 2-3C (4-5F) below average, by the end, the overall mean was about normal.

Also, as it turned unsettled, rainfall totals were topped up generally close to those expected for the month.

A stormy depression headed into Biscay on February 28. It narrowly missed the South-East as it swept across northern Europe over the following 48 hours causing mayhem and many fatalities.

In its wake, pressure rose quickly and the resulting high controlled our weather for most of the next two weeks. The breeze blew largely from a northerly quarter but backed southeasterly from off the still icy continent briefly around the 5th.

By Friday the 12th, the anticyclone had receded to the west of Eire, letting a front swing south-east across us.

This produced bursts of rain during the morning, the first appreciable accumulation of the month.

The high then transferred south-eastwards and within five days, it was far away over southern Europe. This allowed our familiar, changeable, south-westerly flow from off the Atlantic to resume for the first time since early December.

Depressions tracked northeast chiefly between Scotland and Iceland but a couple did cross England on their way into the North Sea. For our region, these simply yielded more substantial and prolonged rainfall.

However, the second, at the end of the March, brought back winter with a vengeance to much of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Up to 50cm (2ft) of snow fell and, accompanied by a gale, created widespread disruption to transport and electricity supplies.

March’s figures at Carlton-in- Cleveland: Mean maximum: 9.6C, 49.5F (+0.3C, +0.5F); mean minimum: 2.2C, 36F (0.4C, 0.7F); highest maximum: 14.5C, 58F, 18th; lowest minimum: 6.0C, 21F, 8th; total rainfall: 50mm, 2.0ins (+1mm, 0.05ins); wettest day: 10mm, 0.4ins, 29th and number of rain days, with 0.2mm (0.01ins) or more: 14 (1).

Figures in brackets show the difference from the 26-year mean, 1984-2009.