A Miserable March: Cold and snow for the second month in a row
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April 4, 2019
A fresh baby calf shelters amongst the yucca while mom keeps an eye on the photographer after an April 1st snowstorm, in the picture above courtesy of Julie Emmons.
March of 2019 in Broadus will go down as the sixth coldest on record, according to National Weather Service records. The record low for March was set this year, on March 3rd with a -36 reading, shattering the previous record of -30, from March 4th of 1989.
The high temperature finally broke the freezing mark for the first time in March on the 11th, with the last single digit low of the month on the 17th. Around this period, the snows began to slowly melt. By the 20th, as temps climbed into the 50s, snowmelt took off, and with it the flooding.
The high temperature of the month in Broadus was recorded on the 26th, at 63 degrees.
The Mizpah 4 miles NNW station recorded the lowest temp of the area, with a -40 low on March 3rd.
Around the county, the average low for March was nine to ten degrees below average, which meant baby calves birthed into the cold conditions often had a tough first few hours of life. If their the calves were born somewhere relatively dry, and if the calf was able to get on its feet and mom dried the calf off, then there was a good chance of survival. If one of those criteria was not met, the calf's fate could be in peril. A saving grave for many a chilled calf was the watchful rancher, who vigilantly tended their herds and warmed the calves...though reports from around the county note that even with help, a good number of calves did not survive. Reports indicate that though the loss was generally not as severe as the spring of 2018, calving loss was still significantly higher than "normal", particularly for those calving in February and early March.
A big factor in the stock losses, aside from the cold, was the flooding. This occurred once the weather finally warmed, with the deep snows leftover from early March and February filling every creek and reservoir with run-off. Some ranchers were cut off from stock due to roads washing out, or physical barriers such as swollen streams between them and the animals. This meant that calving problems weren't able to be dealt with in a timely manner. Another factor with the flooding was that some animals were physically washed away in the high waters.
Nevertheless, life moves on, and the fields are full of babies running to and fro, happy to have room to run on the newly thawed and mostly dried off ground.
Of course, Mother Nature saved a trick up her sleeve for April 1st, as she blanketed the area in an inch or more of good wet snow for an April Fool's joke.
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