Abstract
Weather observations taken four times daily across the present-day central and eastern United States permit a detailed reconstruction of monthly climate and daily weather during March 1843. Based on normalized departures of temperatures from the historic monthly mean, March 1843 may be regarded as the most anomalous month in recorded history for the central and eastern United States. In places, the average temperature for the month was more than 25°F (14°C) below normal, and the expected return frequency for such an anomaly is thousands of years. Using the detailed observations and recent analogs, the daily weather maps for March 1843 can be reconstructed. They show a storm track displaced well to the south of its normal position, with occasional snowstorms bringing winter weather to the Deep South, the Mid-Atlantic States, and New England. The extended severe winter weather caused hardship throughout the area.
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Acknowledgments
About a decade ago, many of the weather records for this month were brought to the attention of John Griffiths, who served as Texas State Climatologist for nearly thirty years. Dr. Griffiths then passed the records along to the lead author. This paper is dedicated to John Griffiths’ memory. Roberto Gasparini assisted with an earlier version of this study, and his help is gratefully acknowledged, and Karen Andsager provided valuable assistance.
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Nielsen-Gammon, J.W., McRoberts, B. (2009). March 1843: The Most Abnormal Month Ever?. In: Dupigny-Giroux, LA., Mock, C. (eds) Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2828-0_9
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