March was the wettest on record for Martha’s Vineyard since recording began in 1946.

The National Weather Service cooperative station in Edgartown recorded a total of 8.65 inches for the month. The last wettest March was is 1983, when the total was 8.22 inches.

Three weather systems collaborated to give New England one of the soggiest months on record: A high pressure system hovering over the North Atlantic, an active southern jet stream, and slow moving soaking weather systems moving in from the west.

“It was a combination of the high pressure system blocking in the Atlantic and acting like a boulder in a stream of air, with an active jet stream in the upper level of the atmosphere,” said Kimberly A. Buttrick, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Taunton.

“These two enabled low pressure systems to move slowly over our region and be of long duration,” Mrs. Buttrick said.

So there were three big rainfall events in the month, when only one was enough. March average rainfall on the Vineyard is 4.03 inches.

The Vineyard was especially fortunate, though, as the weather saw much more rain dumped inland. Blue Hill cooperative weather station recorded 18.81 inches of rain in March, making it the wettest month on record — and their records go back to 1885.

Foxboro got 18.5 inches; Mansfield 16.46; and Reading 17.60.

Bill Wilcox, water resource planner for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, said that the Tisbury Great Pond watershed has risen 1.9 feet from the end of February to Wednesday, March 31. He said he expects it will continue to rise. “All the water we’ve had in the last three days hasn’t yet shown up,” Mr. Wilcox said. “I expect it to pop up another foot in the next two weeks.”

Mr. Wilcox checks the groundwater level at a number of wells around the Island. So far no record has been broken. Anyone living off a well near the Island’s shorelines has little to fear when it comes to saltwater intrusion.

“Saltwater intrusion has definitely been postponed for another year,” Mr. Wilcox said, based on the rainfall amounts so far.

January and February had slightly below average measurable precipitation, a total of 7.41 inches.

At the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest, Mr. Wilcox monitors one well which he considers the center of the groundwater table. He has been measuring the groundwater through the seasons for years.

The average for March is 14.5 feet. The elevation for March this year is 16.9 feet; about a foot short from the March record of 18.1 feet.

Mr. Wilcox said the groundwater level in the state forest usually rises even higher in April and May.