The early morning rains are moving away, and the Luck of the Irish will bring us some sunshine later today. The 0.02" of rain that we've received during the pre-dawn hours makes St. Patrick's Day 2010 the first March 17th that we've had measurable precipitation since 2002. The '02 total: 0.01". If I were to guess whether or not March 17th is lucky weather-wise, I'd have to say "Yes!"

Over the last decade, we've only seen rain on St. Patty's Day twice, and both times were very light. Temperatures can go in either direction. We should be in the mid 60s today, which is a few degrees below normal. But we've become used to that this winter. Last year we hit 76, and in '08 we hit 81! Over the past 10 years, we've seen highs as low as 54 and as warm as 82. Those temps were recorded in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Coldest temp on St. Patrick's day, 29 back in 1923. Hottest, 86, back in 1907.

Rain has been fairly rare, at least over the last 10 years. The wettest, 1996 where we had 1.68 inches of rain. With Acadiana daily rainfall records between 2 and 4 inches on average, that 1.68" would point out that maybe we're lucky on the rain part too. March is the 3rd driest month on average, behind February and October.