As the title at least in part suggests, we had some snow in February and not just a typical Western Washington dusting. The month was notably cooler than my 22 year average with daytime highs averaging 46.1º nearly three below normal, and morning lows averaging 32.5º which is two and a half degrees cooler than normal. The month was pretty dry as far as water content is concerned.
Temps ranged from a high of 54.8º on the 9th to a low of 14.3º on the 2nd which was a 22 year all time low for February edging out the previous record by a mere two tenths of a degree. Now these are my records for my 22 years of reporting from this site, Vancouver's all time record low for February came in 1950 with a reading of -2º so we were no where near that. The chilliest afternoon high arrived on the 23rd with 31.3º which was also a 22 year record daily at this location. Three daily record lows fell last month and two daily record low max temps as well. February delivered eight days with temps above 50º and four days that failed to reach 40º. A dozen days dipped below the freezing mark overnight but only one day failed to rise above freezing. The warmest overnight low arrived on the morning of the 20th when the mercury only dipped to 43.8º.
On the precipitation side of weather, February was actually a bit boring. There were just 4 sunny days the whole month and 14 rainy/snowy days. The wettest day was mere 0.29 inch on the 27th, which was one of just 3 days measuring more than 1/4 inch. The total water content was only a third of normal with 2.06 inches. There were six days with winter precipitation falling mostly as snow with the snowiest day being the 22nd when I measured 5 inches. The month of February ended up with 7.5 inches of snow.
So what's up with the title? Snow Crown? The first dozen years of recording weather at this location February was always a distant third behind January and December in terms of average snowfall. But the last decade has seen February quietly moving closer to the December and January averages with several 'snowmeggeddon' events. This year for the first time in my 22 years of records February is now the snowiest month averaging 2.62 inches a year ahead of January which has fallen to 2.48 inches average and December which has been steady averaging 2.49 inches. I haven't had a big snowstorm in January since 2017 when the month recorded more than 8 inches. I've had three Januaries since then with ZERO snowfall. Historically, according to long time weather records, January has been the juggernaut for snowfall with 4.29 inches on average compared to paltry numbers for December and February at 1.4 and 1.1 inches respectively. So for now, February is the snowiest month at my house. I'd imagine that we will get some monster 'snowpocalypse' in January in the next year or so and that month will reclaim the crown. The chart shows February's snow fall versus the other months since the 01-02 winter season.
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