March Weather at Zurich Airport SwitzerlandDaily high temperatures increase by 9°F, from 45°F to 54°F, rarely falling below 34°F or exceeding 66°F. Daily low temperatures increase by 7°F, from 30°F to 36°F, rarely falling below 19°F or exceeding 44°F. For reference, on August 3, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Zurich Airport typically range from 57°F to 77°F, while on February 8, the coldest day of the year, they range from 27°F to 40°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on March. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. Hope, British Columbia, Canada (5,116 miles away) is the far-away foreign place with temperatures most similar to Zurich Airport (view comparison). CloudsThe month of March at Zurich Airport experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 57% throughout the month. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 55% on March 2. The clearest day of the month is March 2, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 45% of the time. For reference, on November 23, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 63%, while on July 22, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 62%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Zurich Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of March is very rapidly increasing, starting the month at 28% and ending it at 37%. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 48% on June 10, and its lowest chance is 27% on February 29. Over the course of March at Zurich Airport, the chance of a day with only rain increases from 22% to 35%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain remains an essentially constant 2% throughout, and the chance of a day with only snow remains an essentially constant 1% throughout. RainfallTo show variation within the month and not just the monthly total, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during March at Zurich Airport is increasing, starting the month at 2.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 4.1 inches or falls below 0.5 inches, and ending the month at 2.6 inches, when it rarely exceeds 5.0 inches or falls below 1.1 inches. SnowfallAs with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day snowfall during March at Zurich Airport is decreasing, starting the month at 1.7 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.7 inches or falls below -0.0 inches, and ending the month at 0.4 inches, when it rarely exceeds 1.3 inches or falls below -0.0 inches. SunOver the course of March at Zurich Airport, the length of the day is rapidly increasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day increases by 1 hour, 43 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 3 minutes, 26 seconds, and weekly increase of 24 minutes, 1 second. The shortest day of the month is March 1, with 11 hours, 6 minutes of daylight and the longest day is March 31, with 12 hours, 49 minutes of daylight. The earliest sunrise of the month at Zurich Airport is 6:07 AM on March 30 and the latest sunrise is 58 minutes later at 7:05 AM on March 31. The earliest sunset is 6:11 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 1 hour, 43 minutes later at 7:54 PM on March 31. Daylight saving time (DST) starts at 3:00 AM on March 31, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour later. For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:28 AM and sets 15 hours, 58 minutes later, at 9:26 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 8:10 AM and sets 8 hours, 27 minutes later, at 4:37 PM. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for March 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.
HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy at Zurich Airport is essentially constant during March, remaining around 0% throughout. For reference, on August 6, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 2% of the time, while on October 2, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed at Zurich Airport is essentially constant during March, remaining within 0.1 miles per hour of 7.2 miles per hour throughout. For reference, on February 6, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.4 miles per hour, while on August 9, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 5.3 miles per hour. The hourly average wind direction at Zurich Airport throughout March is predominantly from the west, with a peak proportion of 45% on March 15. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season at Zurich Airport typically lasts for 6.3 months (193 days), from around April 19 to around October 29, rarely starting before April 2 or after May 8, and rarely ending before October 10 or after November 21. The month of March at Zurich Airport is very likely fully outside of the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season gradually increasing from 0% to 7% over the course of the month. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days at Zurich Airport are essentially constant during March, remaining within 16°F of 23°F throughout. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Zurich Airport is increasing during March, rising by 1.2 kWh, from 2.9 kWh to 4.1 kWh, over the course of the month. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Zurich Airport are 47.453 deg latitude, 8.561 deg longitude, and 1,414 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Zurich Airport contains significant variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 502 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 1,462 feet. Within 10 miles contains significant variations in elevation (1,749 feet). Within 50 miles contains very significant variations in elevation (11,030 feet). The area within 2 miles of Zurich Airport is covered by artificial surfaces (60%), cropland (24%), and trees (15%), within 10 miles by cropland (36%) and trees (31%), and within 50 miles by trees (36%) and cropland (28%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Zurich Airport, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Temperature and Dew PointZurich Airport has a weather station that reported reliably enough during the analysis period that we have included it in our network. When available, historical temperature and dew point measurements are taken directly from this weather station. These records are obtained from NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly data set, falling back on ICAO METAR records as required. In the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on records from nearby stations, adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal intra-station differences. For a given day of the year and hour of the day, the fallback station is selected to minimize the prediction error over the years for which there are measurements for both stations. The stations on which we may fall back include but are not limited to Dübendorf Air Base, Emmen Air Base, Konstanz, Meiringen, Messstetten, Friedrichshafen, St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport, and EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg. Other DataAll data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors. DisclaimerThe information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. 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