March left the Midwest on a wintry note, blasting Minnesota (above) with snow on its way out. (image: Janellie via flickr.com)
March made a nasty departure from the Midwest, where temperatures were well below average for the last week of the month: four degrees cooler in Missouri, and up to 12 degrees chillier in Minnesota. A few states hit record lows for the last ten days of March, with plenty of springtime snowfall, too, according to the regional climate center.
The bad weather took a toll on the regional propane inventory. The Midwest sucked up just shy of a million gallons of propane for the week that ended on April 1. That accounted for most of the 1.1 million dip in the national supply, according to the numbers the Energy Information Administration released this afternoon.
It was the largest drawdown for the last week of March, a time when warmer weather typically prompts a rebound in the propane stockpile. By comparison, over the same time period last year, the national inventory banked 2.4 million gallons.