Weathercatch: March – windy is the word

March is a fickle month. Mild, sunny days can alternate with cold, rainy or snowy ones. Sometimes contrasting weather conditions can occur within the same day. One minute we’re donning T-shirts and sneakers, the next, a heavy sweatshirt and boots. Talk about a weather seesaw.

With its divergent swings, it’s hard to know what March will bring from one year to the next. But one thing remains as predictable as the arrival of mountain bluebirds and red-winged blackbirds to our region: wind.

Breezy, windy, gusty. You name it. March is the windiest month of the year in the Inland Northwest. In the Spokane area, the average hourly wind speed is 9.6 mph, compared to the yearly overall average of 6.4 mph. True to form, this month opened with blustery conditions. Mean daily winds reached at least 10 mph from March 1 to 4, and gusts peaked at 27, 36, 38, and 42 mph, respectively. For those of you who walked your dogs, hoofed it to work or exercised on bike trails, you felt it in a big way.

Why windy in March? A major reason is that wind is driven by differences in temperature and air pressure. As winter transitions to spring, we have lingering cold air masses from the north. At the same time, warm air masses are encroaching from the south and increasing sunshine is producing warm air close to the earth’s surface. The difference between the cold air and escalating warm air generates varying air pressure gradients, which, in turn, create stronger winds.

Of course, frontal systems can bring winds as well. The greater the temperature difference between the two air masses, the stronger the force of the winds.

The windiest period in our region runs from early February through mid-May, when hourly wind speed peaks during March. April is the second windiest month, with an average wind speed of 9.5 mph.

Compare that to summertime, when, during July and August at Washington State University’s AgWeatherNet’s Fairfield station near Spokane, winds average close to 5.5 mph.

Just as adolescence can be a bumpy and headstrong transition to adulthood, Mother Nature’s transition from winter to spring can be topsy-turvy as well. It’s called March, and though it might whip your hat off your head, soak your shoes and turn your fingertips red, it will never ask for your car keys.