First Alert Weather In-Depth: St. Patrick’s Day weather

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — A lot of folks look forward to St. Patrick’s Day and it is probably for a couple of reasons. We know we are turning the corner on the seasons and winter is winding down.

We know that on March 17 we can get just about any kind of weather. Will it be rain? Will it be snow? Will it be sunny? Will it be spring or will it be winter? We have had just about everything when it comes to March 17.

Take a look through the years and let me show you the weather history of St. Patrick’s Day. The highest temperature ever recorded was 76 degrees which was back to 1927. The lowest temperature goes all the way back to 1885 when we had a reading down to zero.

This is a look at the typical temperature over 30 years. The average high temperature is 43 degrees and the overnight low temperature is usually down to 26 degrees.

What about precipitation? The most rainfall ever recorded was back in 1927 with a little over an inch of rain. Now, I hesitate to mention it, but the most snowfall goes back to 1973 when measured 10.4 inches. More than likely this late in the season it was probably one of those wet, sloppy kind of snowfalls.

What are we going to find this year? We have the chance of pushing the record high temperature. As we expect that Rochester will be well into the 60s. And expect lots of sunshine for the day.

We can probably thank our “lucky charms” that we have some pretty good weather, at least for this Saint Paddy’s Day.