Rochester experiences coldest spring day on record

After putting Rochester’s winter of 2013/2014 into the weather books as the 5th coldest on record, the spring season is off to a brutally cold start.  The mercury at the Rochester airport dropped below zero Saturday afternoon and may not get back into positive territory until later this morning.  Yesterday’s official high temperature  was 3 degrees below zero.  That not only set a record for the coldest maximum temperature for the date - it also broke the all time meteorological spring record for the coldest maximum reading.

   The previous record was zero, set in March 1948.  Yesterday’s low was 15 below, just missing the record for the date by 4 degrees.  Today’s record low is 17 below and it may be threatened.  The National Weather Service says conditions are pointing to below normal temperatures through much of March.