DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The National Weather Service says the lack of winter weather and some record high temperatures helped make March the warmest on record in Iowa. The service says there were several date records and entire weeks of record warmth.

Some examples:  The high of 84 in Des Moines on March 16 broke the 1930 record of 77. The high of 82 in Waterloo on March 17 broke the 2003 record of 78; The average temperature of 66.6 degrees in Waterloo from March 16 through March 22 was nearly 30 degrees above normal for that span; For the month in Des Moines, the average temperature of 55.7 broke the 1910 record of 51.5; For the month in Dubuque, the average temperature of 50.2 degrees broke the 1910 record of 47.7 degrees.

In Atlantic, the average High for March 2012 was 67-degrees, or 22-degrees above the normal average High of 45. The average Low last month was 39, which was 14-degrees warmer than normal.  Rainfall for the month was 1.91-inches, which was nearly four-tenths of an inch below normal.

The month of April started out with a near record high in Atlantic. On Sunday, we topped out at 86 degrees, which was just 1 degree shy of tying the record for that date. On Monday, we broke our record high of 85 set in 1981, when we hit 88-degrees.