A Fickle February is Done

February 2014 has gone down as a mixed bag of goods. The month started out very chilly with the 6th recording the coldest daytime high reading since January 4th, 2004. The month ended with a downright balmy 58.8 degrees and warm rays of golden sunny goodness beaming down from the heavens.

But March has a different idea for it has always been the fickle month. Arctic air has moved in overhead and that warm 58.8 from yesterday is planted in the past. Highs today and tomorrow will feel more like early January than early March. Snow flurries are in the mix for the next day or so as well. Since it is the first of March let's look at the February stats.

February looked like this:

The second arctic event of the season came in early in the month with cold temps and a significant snow event. I recorded my snowiest February in 13 winters of records at this location. I had 11.1 inches of mostly light, dry and fluffy snow. Enough snow fell in the first 9 days of the month to produce those giant plowed mounds in local parking lots that remained for the rest of the month. This event, like the one in December had more snow on the west side of the county than the east.

The coldest temp of the month was a 19.0 on the 6th and that same afternoon had the coldest daytime high of 22.2. The warmest day was the 28th with a balmy 58.8 under sunny skies and the warmest overnight low was during a blustery and wet event on the night of the 13th at 43.7 degrees. 

The short month of February delivered some much needed precipitation with a total of 6.76 inches of water equivalent precipitation. The snowiest day was the 6th with 5 inches and the wettest day was the 17th with 1.14 inches. 

The average overnight low was a little cooler than normal with 33.75 and the average daytime high was much cooler than normal at 44.19 when days usual average closer to 50 in February. Precipitation was about average for water content  just a touch low but snowfall was well above my 13 year average for February that is only 1.53 inches.

So the five year pattern of big snow events seems to be holding intact. January 2004, December 2008 (4 years 11 months later) and now February 2014 (5 years 2 months later). So all you snow haters can relax until the 2018-2019 winter season ;)

March is often a wild and unpredictable month that can see the first 80 degree mark of the season and also snow showers. So get ready for spring, it's closer than you think and by all means; soak it up my friends, soak it up.