Golfers are loving it, farmers maybe aren’t so sure.
March 2016 was the fourth warmest on record for Red Deer, Environment Canada meteorologist Kirk Torneby said Friday.
Temperatures were almost five degrees above normal. The average temperature for the month was 0.9C. The normal for Red Deer is -3.7C. The warmest March on record was in 1992 with the average temperature being 2.1C .
The highest temperature recorded in March at the Red Deer Airport was 13C on March 30. The lowest temperature was -17C on March 1, and the lowest daytime high temperature was -2.2C on March 22.
The rest of the province was three to five degrees above normal from the south all the way to Slave Lake area.
“It’s pretty impressive,” Torneby said, referring to the strong El Nino event getting the credit for the warm winter and early spring in Alberta. But the weather phenomenon is starting to dwindle.
El Nino’s biggest affects are generally seen over the winter season for Western Canada. It’s peak intensity was in February.
There are already indications that the effects of warmer eastern Pacific Ocean waters, which are the main driver of El Nino, are starting to weaken. The longer range models are all showing the El Nino trend is starting to move back to a more neutral position for the summer season, Torneby said.
The long range seasonal forecast indicates temperatures will still be a little bit above normal for April and May, maybe one or two degrees above normal across the Prairies.
Precipitation in March for Red Deer was slightly drier than average, about 78 per cent of normal. Total precipitation was 19 mm of water equivalent. This is comprised of 16 cm of snow and 1.4 mm of rain.
But the long-range outlook for precipitation is it could be higher than average over the next few months, although this is more difficult to quantify, Torneby said.
Driving ranges at some local golf courses have opened earlier this year, including the one at River Bend Golf Course, which opened Friday.
The most recent soil moisture report indicates that while present conditions are generally below normal in the area, moisture general comes by the end of May.