Sunday, March 1, 2020

March Has Arrived!

Mornin'!  It's 29° in Wildwood NJ.  23° windchill with 8-12mph NW winds wafting over the island.  Certainly has a nip in the wintry morning air.  Ms Sun just rose in the clear sky almost an hour ago.  But, it's quite a difference from this time last year on March 1st as we were getting pelted with an icy, driven snow as the island was completely covered in white.  I want to say "Welcome, March" but it's extremely hard.  Not a fan of March weather.  Born and raised in Philadelphia, March was always the month that Spring sprung.  The beginning of sneak-peaks of warmer sun, birds chirping all the time, fragrant air with fresh blooms and buds starting to pop everywhere making things more colorful... you know... all that nice Spring stuff.  Not here.  A northeast coastal town holds on to the end of winter weather with a vengeance and Wildwood is no exception.  The culprit is the winds.  They're pretty intense and unforgiving.  The 42° water temperature surrounding us joins with the gusty winds... and it goes right through you.  I do believe that the earth is warming at an alarming rate and its waters are changing (warmer, higher water levels, trash-laden etc) and who knows March could be the new April or even May.  I mean we had at least 10 days in February with temps over 50° and a couple in the 60s!  I didn't check, but I'm pretty sure January had a couple of those type of days too.  That's not normal.  Typically we would have had major winter weather... really low temps (teens or single digits), frozen harbors, intense freezing windchills, ice, snow, sleet and maybe a blizzard thrown in.  We had none of that this winter in regard to March's weather it's as unpredictable as guessing when that first hurricane will hit between June 1st and November 30th (hurricane season).  One thing I will predict with a good deal of certainty... winds are checking in this month, lots and lots of winds. March doesn't disappoint in that regard.
Today's weather will be cold and blustery.  Expect abundant sunshine with temps in the low-40s (feeling like mid-30s) with winds out of the W-NW at 15-20mph.  Tonight... clear and 38° with S-SW breezes at 8-10mph.  Tomorrow... partly cloudy with temps in the low-mid 50s and S-SW winds at get this... 20-30mph +gusting.  Tomorrow night... 30% chance of rain with gusty winds!  Welcome March?
High Tide: 11:56AM
Low Tide: 5:40PM
Ocean Temp: 42°
Sunrise: 6:31AM
Sunset: 5:53PM
Daylight Savings Time: One Week!

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