March Discobs 2026

[Weather Will]

Winter cold and grey 

We wasted another shot of cold air....maybe one more shot next week before a warmup in early April.

[kgottwald]

6 minutes ago, Weather Will said:

Winter cold and grey 

We wasted another shot of cold air....maybe one more shot next week before a warmup in early April.

Arizona dreamin' on such a winter's day

[IronTy]

Why is this winter so terrible?  I'm so tired of cold and gray.  Are there any stats showing that the last 6mo have been cloudier than usual?  

[kgottwald]

NWS sites used to measure "daily minutes of sunshine" but stopped doing that in 1998 - something to do with the switch to ASOS. Big step backwards.

[wxmeddler]

30 minutes ago, IronTy said:

Why is this winter so terrible?  I'm so tired of cold and gray.  Are there any stats showing that the last 6mo have been cloudier than usual?  

10 minutes ago, kgottwald said:

NWS sites used to measure "daily minutes of sunshine" but stopped doing that in 1998 - something to do with the switch to ASOS. Big step backwards.

The MD Mesonet stations has sunshine detectors (pyranometers). We're recording the data and eventually we'll have statistics on it but it fairly low on the priority list. We should be able to do % of sunshine and energy but % of normal will be harder to determine since there isn't a good history.

[TSSN+]

19 last night and cloudy now 

[87storms]

52 minutes ago, IronTy said:

Why is this winter so terrible?  I'm so tired of cold and gray.  Are there any stats showing that the last 6mo have been cloudier than usual?  

It reminds me of the 2013-2015 winters, but just less precip/snow.  Satellite does show clearing to the west, though.  Hoping to get some afternoon sunshine.

[Eskimo Joe]

 

 

[Paleocene]

1 hour ago, IronTy said:

Why is this winter so terrible?  I'm so tired of cold and gray.  Are there any stats showing that the last 6mo have been cloudier than usual?  

Sample size of one, but for my solar array:

12/20/25 - 3/17/26: 1.2 MWh of power produced

12/20/24 - 3/17/25: 1.4 MWh of power produced

12/20/23 - 3/17/24: 1.4 MWh of power produced

So, call it a ~15% reduction in power produced due to cloudiness and snow cover between last winter and this winter (and the winter before that too). Feels worse than that though.

[IronTy]

24 minutes ago, Paleocene said:

Sample size of one, but for my solar array:

12/20/25 - 3/17/26: 1.2 MWh of power produced

12/20/24 - 3/17/25: 1.4 MWh of power produced

12/20/23 - 3/17/24: 1.4 MWh of power produced

So, call it a ~15% reduction in power produced due to cloudiness and snow cover between last winter and this winter (and the winter before that too). Feels worse than that though.

Very interesting.  I didn't think to look at the system output for our rooftop in DC. Either the weather is getting shittier every year since 2022, the sun is dying, or my panels are aging. 

[IronTy]

33 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

 

 

Both of my game cams reported 8F at 7am in bittinger.  3k ft.   

[katabatic]

@IronTy that's also what I recorded this morning: 8F for a low. It'll likely be next season before we see single digits again. All in all, a decent winter out here. I'd give it a B.

[WxUSAF]

Have to consider trees growing in with your year to year solar production 

[87storms]

2 hours ago, Paleocene said:

Sample size of one, but for my solar array:

12/20/25 - 3/17/26: 1.2 MWh of power produced

12/20/24 - 3/17/25: 1.4 MWh of power produced

12/20/23 - 3/17/24: 1.4 MWh of power produced

So, call it a ~15% reduction in power produced due to cloudiness and snow cover between last winter and this winter (and the winter before that too). Feels worse than that though.

My friend shared his solar panel production stats (also via Enphase). Definitely cloudier this month compared to last March.

[WEATHER53]

Very cold low  of 20.5 at Frederick house and 24 in Kemp Mill.  Frederick just broke freezing at 1pm and now 32.7 .  I remember the  storm of the century 1993 we had a high next day  of 28 which is coldest  high I can remember  for mid March 

[Paleocene]

29 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

Have to consider trees growing in with your year to year solar production 

Fair but I only have a three year sample. And my 3 winter dataset is all pre-leaf-out.

 

28 minutes ago, 87storms said:

My friend shared his solar panel production stats (also via Enphase). Definitely cloudier this month compared to last March.

Last March, I generated 893.5 kWh.

This March, through right now, I'm at 329.3 kWh.  Bad lol. Tack on another 10 kWh for the afternoon and call it 340 thru the 18th.

Through the 18th last year I was at 496.5kWh.

Obviously the end of the month can generate more sweet sweet solar juice, but I am not going to make up that gap. 33% drop

[TSG]

Still haven't hit 40F in Cville despite having full sun since about 9am. This is one of the coldest late March days I can remember

[WxUSAF]

1 hour ago, Paleocene said:

Fair but I only have a three year sample. And my 3 winter dataset is all pre-leaf-out.

 

Last March, I generated 893.5 kWh.

This March, through right now, I'm at 329.3 kWh.  Bad lol. Tack on another 10 kWh for the afternoon and call it 340 thru the 18th.

Through the 18th last year I was at 496.5kWh.

Obviously the end of the month can generate more sweet sweet solar juice, but I am not going to make up that gap. 33% drop

Snowcover made a huge difference to this winter’s production as well. I bet that’s the bigger factor than clouds.

[IronTy]

19 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

Snowcover made a huge difference to this winter’s production as well. I bet that’s the bigger factor than clouds.

Trees aren't an issue for me as it's a rowhome right downtown.  But you're probably on to something regarding snowcover.  Last year and this year saw significant stretches of snow on the panels so that probably explains the drop vs. 22/23.  

[IronTy]

2 hours ago, katabatic said:

@IronTy that's also what I recorded this morning: 8F for a low. It'll likely be next season before we see single digits again. All in all, a decent winter out here. I'd give it a B.

I hope we're done with single digits out there.  Looks like about 1" of snow overnight too.  

[CAPE]

Looks like 37 will be the high here after a low of 25.

Feels quite cold despite the strong mid March sun. This would have felt refreshing a month or so ago. A guess those super warm days effed me up.

[Scraff]

Here’s some DC obs for everyone. It’s cold outside, but warm in Other Half Brewing. 

[CAPE]

1 minute ago, Scraff said:

Here’s some DC obs for everyone. It’s cold outside, but warm in Other Half Brewing. 

I'd be all over that Velvet Magnum.

[87storms]

2 hours ago, Paleocene said:

Fair but I only have a three year sample. And my 3 winter dataset is all pre-leaf-out.

 

Last March, I generated 893.5 kWh.

This March, through right now, I'm at 329.3 kWh.  Bad lol. Tack on another 10 kWh for the afternoon and call it 340 thru the 18th.

Through the 18th last year I was at 496.5kWh.

Obviously the end of the month can generate more sweet sweet solar juice, but I am not going to make up that gap. 33% drop

Yea his is about half of what it was and that takes into account a few months early last year where one of (or some) of his 48 ground panels wasn’t working properly. 1.4mwh last March (to date) compared to 772.5kwh this month, to be exact. Sunny af today, though.