MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

March 2020, the driest March in Falklands on record

Short sleeves and plenty of sun light in Stanley

March 2020 was the driest March on record according to data from the Met Office at Mount Pleasant Airport in the Falkland Islands, with rainfall less than a third of the monthly average.

Maximum and minimum temperatures were both around 1.5 degrees above average with sunshine hours also slightly above average. Wind speeds were about average for the month, but the other weather phenomena that are recorded for climate purposes were all less frequent than average.

The mean maximum temperature was 14.7 Celsius, the highest maximum was 21.0 Celsius on the 16th and the lowest maximum was 9.4 Celsius on the 22nd.

The mean minimum temperature was 7.3 Celsius, with the lowest minimum of 0.7 Celsius occurring on March 25 and the highest minimum of 14.9 Celsius occurring on March first. 16.0 mm of rain fell in the month with the wettest day being on the 13th when 3.0 mm fell. This month had 19 days of rainfall totals exceeding 0.1mm and six days where the rainfall exceeded 1.0mm or more.

The monthly mean wind speed was 15.3 knots. The highest gust was 49 knots which occurred on March 6. There were four days of gale and 18 days where gusts were greater than 33 knots.