First Day of Spring Climatology for North Platte and Valentine

First Day of Spring

Spring (Vernal Equinox) officially begins at 11:30 pm CDT (10:30 pm MDT) on Saturday, March 19, 2016. (0430 UTC, March 20).

The vernal equinox occurs when the sun is directly overhead of the equator. Yearly variation can cause the first day of Spring to begin on either March 19 or 20. Western and North Central Nebraska can experience a wide range of weather during the spring time. Below are the records for the first day of Spring for North Platte and Valentine.

Confusion on the date? Since the first day of spring this year occurs at March 20 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) some calendars may show March 20 as the first day of spring. This is true if you follow UTC or are located in the eastern time zone (equinox is 12:30 am EDT), however in Nebraska the spring equinox occurs on Saturday evening.

North Platte Records
Record	March 19	March 20
High	86/2004	83/1997
Low	-6/1965	-4/1912,1876
Lowest Max	20/1906	13/1913
Highest Min	43/2012	47/1918
Precip	0.91/1964	1.14/1912
Snow	7.4/1888	8.5/1912

Valentine Records
Record	March 19	March 20
High	85/2004	83/1997
Low	-11/1965	-9/1913,1912
Lowest Max	15/1892	6/1913
Highest Min	48/2012	45/1916
Precip	0.64/1942	0.76/1912
Snow	10.0/2006	7.6/1912

Page composition by
Matthew Masek