March had been set to be drier than average, recording only 30 millimetres of rain, before the weekend downpour saw Canberra Airport reach a total of 76.2 millimetres. March's average is about 51 millimetres.

Australia recorded its hottest March on record last month, when the national mean temperature was 2.13 degrees above average.

Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Dr Blair Trewin said there was an 80 per cent chance of above average temperatures in coming months in Canberra.

He said while Australia in general saw a record March, mainly in north-east NSW and south-east Queensland, Canberra's temperatures were just above average.

"Certainly wasn't a record March in the ACT. Canberra came in 1.4 degrees above average for maximum temperatures," Dr Trewin said.

Dr Trewin said Canberra had been tracking below average rainfall in March before the cold front brought rain across the region.

"You had that pretty substantial rainfall on Friday night which took it up," Dr Trewin said.

Both daytime and night-time temperatures in Canberra were warmer than average for this time of year.

The capital's northern areas saw generally warmer than average temperatures, while the south saw slightly colder than average.

The hottest day in March hit 34.6 degrees, while the coldest maximum temperature was 16.4 degrees.

Last weekend, maximum temperatures didn't reach above 18 degrees on Saturday and Sunday with overnight temperatures dropping six to eight degrees below average on the Saturday night.

South of Canberra the Snowy Mountains had its first snowfall of the season but that wasn't thanks to record-cold, Dr Trewin said.

"That weekend that was a pretty significant cold outbreak for March, not generally record breaking but it was on the cold end of what we usually see in March," he said.