According to today's Weather and Crop Bulletin report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),A storm system drifted southward near the Pacific Coast before veering inland and accelerating across the central Plains and Midwest.
Storm-related impacts, including rain, snow, high winds, and severe weather, affected many parts of the country.
Notably, widespread severe thunderstorms on March 31 in the mid-South and Midwest occurred exactly a week after another deadly Southern tornado outbreak.
During the end-of-March event, more than 100 tornadoes were spotted, some as far north as southern Wisconsin, based on preliminary reports.
Meanwhile, heavy rain (locally 2 to 4 inches or more) fell across the lower Southeast, excluding Florida’s peninsula, while snow blanketed areas from South Dakota to northern Michigan.
Mountain snow fell in the West, boosting the water equivalency of the Sierra Nevada snowpack above 60 inches (about 235 percent of average), according to the California Department of Water Resources.
Elsewhere, windy, dry weather dominated the southern High Plains and parts of the Southwest, periodically raising dust and maintaining significant stress on rangeland, pastures, and winter grains.