March 21-31, 2001:

The week of March 21-27 was very dry for much of the Midwest (Figure 15). Most of the precipitation received in the region occurred on the 21st and 22nd, when a powerful low pressure center looped around the region to the south and east. The system brought 0.5 to 1.0 inches of rain to eastern Kentucky and far southeastern Ohio, and missed the rest of the region. Closplint, KY, received 11 inches of snow at higher altitudes in the Appalachians. Following this storm, it was slightly milder for a while in the Midwest, with widespread fog on March 22 and 23 in the western Midwest where snow packs were melting. The snow pack at Des Moines finally diminished below 1 inch, ending their record streak of one inch or more snow depth at 99 days. Rivers rose above flood stage through much of Iowa, flooding low lying roads and fields but with no major town or city flooding. On the 24th, however, further melting was curtailed and major flooding delayed or prevented when a strong cold front and arctic air mass entered the region along with a clipper system. Most of the snow that fell in the northern Midwest this week occurred as lake effect snow over the period of March 24-26 (Figure 16).

The extreme cold for the time of year caused the entire Midwest to be below temperature for the week, from 3°F below normal in the east to up to 14°F below normal in the west (Figure 17). Record low maximum temperatures were set in Flint, Grand Rapids, Marquette, and Lansing, MI, on the 25th, and record low minimums were set or tied on the morning of the 26th at Fort Wayne, IN; Dayton, Columbus, Akron, Youngstown, Findlay, Toledo, Cleveland, and Mansfield, OH; Flint and Detroit, MI; and Jackson, KY. Jackson also set a record low minimum on the morning of the 27th. The final few days of the month were quiet, with only light precipitation falling ahead of a cold front moving through the region on the 31st.