The sun sets on Saturday, March 21 in central Nebraska after temperatures climbed into the upper 90s across the region, (Brian Neben, Courtesy)
GRAND ISLAND — The heat wave that produced temperatures in the high 90s on Saturday, March 21 are the highest that have been recorded in March or April in 130 years.
According to the National Weather Service – Hastings, the historic heat blast resulted in temperatures between 95 and 98 degrees.
These temperatures have never been recorded in the month of March and at least match the hottest recordings for the month of April.
While various parts of the forecast area have exceeded 90 degrees during March at some point since record keeping began 130 years, but not only did Grand Island and Hastings exceed 90 degrees in March for the first time, but hit temperatures never before recorded during the month of April.
On Saturday, Grand Island recorded a high temperature of 98 degrees, previously 90-degree temperatures had occurred nine times in, most recently as March 16, 2015.
For reference, the previous earliest annual occurrence of 98 degrees was April 20, 1902. The previous high for the date of March 21 was 83 degrees in 1988.
Grand Island temperature records date back to 1896.
Hastings temperature on Saturday topped out at 97 degrees, the previous record for the date was 87 and set in 1910.
For reference, the previous highest record for the entire month of March in Hastings was 90 degrees set on March 23, 1910.
The new record was one degree higher than the current record high temperature for the entire month of April which was set on April 23, 1989.
Temperature records date back to 1907 in Hastings.
The high temperatures were due to a strong upper-level ridge of high pressure in the western United States, the axis of the ridge shifted to the east during the day.
