Part of what the Nebraska State Climate Office does is record climate events each month for the historic record. In March, this took on a new level of complexity with both a major blizzard and a major flood in Nebraska.

The historic flooding was the result of more than just the “bomb” cyclone that struck the state; rather the long, cold winter played a huge role. Read more about how the climatic stream of events led to the catastrophe that followed in this month’s edition of the Climate Update.

Among the weather extremes noted were:

• Temperatures: -21°F March 4 at Axtell to 79.5°F March 27 at McCook
• The monthly statewide average temperature was 32.7°F, which is 5.4 degrees below normal and ranks as 31st coldest out of 125 years of record.
• Highest daily precipitation: 2.95 inches March 14 at Elgin.