Temperatures to hit the 70s, less than a month after Tri-Cities snowstorm

The temperature is forecast to reach the mid 70s by the end of the work week in the Tri-Cities — not bad considering there was snow on the ground less than a month ago.

The National Weather Service says skies should be sunny for most of the coming week, with highs climbing from about 66 on Monday to the mid 70s by Thursday in the Tri-Cities.

Normal highs for early April in the Tri-Cities are about 63 degrees, increasing to about 70 by the end of the month, according to the weather service.

Despite the warm weather forecast for this week, temperatures likely will average below normal for the month and there could be more rain than usual for April, the weather service says. About 0.6 inches of rain is typical.

March temperatures averaged about 1 degree below normal in the Tri-Cities and was snowier than usual.

On March 13 and 14, 1.4 inches of snow fell in the Tri-Cities.

The Hanford Meteorology Service also reported 1.4 inches at its meteorological station north of Richland in March. Usual snowfall for March is 0.4 inches, it said.

The March snowfall brought the total snow for the winter season to 3.2 inches, with 15.3 inches normal for Hanford.

One daily record temperature was recorded in March at the Hanford meteorological station.

The high of 33 degrees on March 14, the date of the snow storm, beating the previous record cold high for the date of 40 in 1949.

The peak wind gust in the Tri-Cities in March was 41 mph on March 3. At the Hanford station, it was 43 mph on March 30.

This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 6:00 AM.