Welcome to our new quarterly feature which will describe the weather around the NWS Lake Charles County Warning Area during the previous quarter, which will usually correspond with one of the climatological seasons.  Data compiled at the airports in Alexandria, Beaumont/Port Arthur, Lake Charles, Lafayette and Lufkin, as well as cooperative weather stations in Leesville and Morgan City, will be used to calculate overall regional temperature and precipitation statistics for the season.

While temperatures across the region were a little below normal during the climatological spring (March through May), the makings of our current drought could definitely be seen as rainfall got progressively lower than normal.  The region-wide average temperature for March was 59.7°, which was almost one degree below normal.  Temperatures gradually climbed to normal through the season, as the April average temp of 66.4° was only a half-degree below normal, while May’s 74.4° was right at normal for the month.  The region started dry in March, with the average rainfall of 3.29” being 1.13” below normal.  Things only got worse as the season wore on as April’s rainfall total of 1.61” was two-and-a-half inches too low.  May wound up being the driest of all - the total rainfall of 2.56” was nearly three inches below normal.  For the climatological spring, the average temp across the region was 66.8°, which was 0.5° below normal.  The average rainfall was 7.46" or 6.63" below the norm.

The overall warm spot for the quarter was Lafayette, with an average temperature of 67.9°.  As can be expected, the heart of Acadiana also had the warmest individual month (76.0° in May) during the period.  The coolest location was Leesville and its 64.7° average temp.  Not unexpectedly, the parish seat of Vernon Parish also reported the coolest overall month (59.0° in March).  This station was also the farthest from normal in terms of temperature (1.1° below normal).  Lake Charles and Alexandria tied for closest to normal for the season, with each station being just a tenth of a degree off the norm.

One would possibly expect that a place which was coolest probably had the most rain, and vice versa.  Well such was the case for the spring.  Leesville was also wettest location, with a rainfall total of 10.12".  But wettest isn’t saying much considering that total was still over 5 inches below normal (and the closest to normal of any location)!  By far the driest (and farthest from normal) spot was Lafayette.  The Hub City only received 4.04” of rain, which was a whopping 10.50” below normal!

How will the summer turn out across Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas?  Find out in the next Seasonal Weather Review!