Most of Tampa Bay had very little rain in March.  In Tampa, we received 0.35 inches of rain. That’s 2.68 inches below average.

We had six days of measureable rain at Tampa airport last month but the amounts were low. Here at our Spectrum Bay News 9 studios in St. Petersburg, we had only 0.12 inches of rain in March.

Looking back at the month, one day stands out when some of us had heavy rain. March 20 brought numerous showers and thunderstorms to our area along with hail and high winds. Parts of Citrus County and Pinellas County, including St. Petersburg, had hail that day.  While the heavy rain missed Tampa, Lakeland and Clearwater, other parts of Tampa Bay received one to two inches of rain. 

March rainfall totals:

  • Tampa 0.35” (-2.68”)
  • Clearwater 0.20” (-3.36”)
  • Winter Haven 0.58” (-2.99”)
  • Lakeland 0.84” (3.05”)
  • St. Petersburg 1.08” (-2.67”)
  • Brooksville 1.42” (-2.28”)
  • Bradenton 2.30” (-1.56”)

Several cold fronts moved through our area in March. While they didn’t help to bring us much rain, they did bring us some colder weather. 

We were wearing our jackets the mornings of March 5 and 9, then we had a stretch of colder nights and mornings from March 13 through March 16.   Some of those cold mornings brought freezing temperatures to many areas north of Tampa.  It didn’t feel like spring break that week! March 16 brought the coldest air to our area with a low temperature of 28 degrees in Brooksville, 38 degrees in Lakeland, 40 degrees in Bradenton, 43 degrees in Clearwater and 45 degrees in Tampa that morning.

Brooksville had six freezes in March! Frost was reported as late as March 23 in Citrus County. The temperature dropped to 33 degrees that morning.  

Overall, the temperatures went up and down like a roller coaster. One week we were cold, another week we were warm. Most of us spent the beginning and the end of the month with high temperatures in the 80s. In Tampa, the average monthly temperature was 66.1 degrees which is 1.2 degrees below average.