Temperature (°C)

Lowest Minimum:                                                                                                    -3.25 (on 7/3/26)

Highest Minimum:                                                                                                   9.91 (on 31/3/26)

Mean Minimum:                                                                                                        3.22

Minimum Anomaly:                                                                                                 +0.51

Lowest Maximum:                                                                                                    8.10 (on 13/3/26)

Highest Maximum:                                                                                                   17.11 (on 20/3/26)

Mean Maximum:                                                                                                       11.72

Maximum Anomaly:                                                                                                 +2.40

Lowest Average:                                                                                                         3.13 (on 7/3/26)

Highest Average:                                                                                                         12.22 (on 31/3/26)

Average Temperature:                                                                                               7.47

Average Anomaly:                                                                                                        +1.45

Lowest Diurnal Temperature Range:                                                                   4.11 (on 17/3/26)

Highest Diurnal Temperature Range:                                                                  15.83 (on 20/3/26)

Average Diurnal Temperature Range:                                                                  8.47

Other Temperature Statistics

Single Figures Maximum Temperatures:                                                           8

Single Figures Minimum Temperatures:                                                            27

Double Figures Maximum Temperatures:                                                         23

Double Figures Minimum Temperatures:                                                          0

Maximum Temperatures Above 20°C:                                                                 0

Number of Frosts

Ground Frosts:                                                                                                               10

Air Frosts:                                                                                                                         4 (61.1% of 1991-2020 March average)

Ice Days:                                                                                                                           0

Snow Depths (cm)

Highest Snow Depth:                                                                                                  0.0

Days With Lying Snow:                                                                                               0

Days With Lying Snow at 09:00 UTC:                                                                    0

Rainfall (mm)

Total for March:                                                                                                              62.0 (118.1% of 1991-2020 March average)

Wettest Day:                                                                                                                    11.2 (on 5/3/26)

Highest Hourly Total:                                                                                                   3.4 (on 12/3/26 at 11:00)

Highest Ten Minute Total:                                                                                          1.0 (on 15/3/26 at 20:20)

Rain Days:                                                                                                                         13 (126.5% of 1991-2020 March average)

Dry Days:                                                                                                                           13

Longest Dry Spell                                                                                                           3 days (6/3 to 8/3, 20/3 to 22/3)

Longest Non-Dry Spell                                                                                                 9 days (9/3 to 17/3)

Most Consecutive Rain Days                                                                                       4 days (9/3 to 12/3)

Longest Period Without a Rain Day:                                                                        6 days (17/3 to 22/3)

Wind Speed (mph)

Average Mean Wind Speed:                                                                                          11.8 (109.3% of 1991-2020 March average)

Highest Mean Wind Speed:                                                                                           30.9 (on 29/3/26)

Highest Wind Gust:                                                                                                           46.8 (on 29/3/26)

Most Common Wind Direction                                                                                     SW

Pressure (mb)

Lowest Pressure:                                                                                                                 981.7 (on 12/3/26)

Average Pressure:                                                                                                               1012.0

Highest Pressure:                                                                                                                1031.2 (on 18/3/26)

Sunshine Total (hrs)

Total for March:                                                                                                                     169.2 (152.4% of 1991-2020 March average)

Sunniest Day:                                                                                                                         10.7 (on 7/3/26)

Sunless Days:                                                                                                                          0

Conclusion

In many ways, there are one or two parallels which can be drawn between March 2026 and the same month last year.

As was the case last year, March 2026 was warmer than average with a below average number of air frosts but even with that, there were still more air frosts in March than what there was In February just to show how bad the winter was overall in that regard.

Also just like last year, March 2026 was also an exceptionally sunny month with the final total even beating the final total for March 2025. Last spring went on to be our sunniest spring on record yet in spite of that, this spring has been even sunnier than last spring up until this point in time. Not even a single completely sunless day was recorded in March 2026 which is really remarkable for this early in the year, and that was something which didn't happen in this same month last year.

However, that is where the similarities with last year come to an end because although there was a spell of high pressure dominated weather in the middle of the month, the month as a whole was nothing like as high pressure dominated as the same month last year, or last spring as a whole.

March 2026 was very Atlantic-driven. This meant that we didn't get the easterlies which we might typically expect to get at this of the year and because of that, we didn't have the same issues with east coast haar which we would typically get. That is probably what resulted in the month as a whole being so exceptionally sunny.

However, that also left us more exposed to wet weather filtering its way through the Forth-Clyde Valley in that more westerly regime with the result that it was much wetter than the same month last year.

The end result of this is that March 2026 was slightly wetter than average both in terms of the actual rainfall amounts, and in terms of the number of official rain days. It was only just wetter than average and no more in the end, but that is only really due to a spell of high pressure dominated weather in the middle of the month and had it not been for that, it would probably have ended up much wetter than it actually was in the end.