Astounding February

By: Bob Henson , 4:11 PM GMT on March 02, 2015

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We won t have the full state-by-state picture of February s U.S. climate for a few d
ays, but the outlines are abundantly clear from city climate summaries issued on
Sunday. It s been almost 40 years since the nation has seen a month so starkly di
vided between a cold east and warm west. The statistics bring to mind early 1977
, when snowflakes fell for the first and only time on Miami Beach s art deco build
ings while skiers in the Rockies found themselves hunting in vain for fresh powd
er. A more distant analog for the sharp eastern cold is January 1934, as evident
in the records broken below. This year millions of people experienced either th
e warmest or coldest February for their locations, with records in some cases go
ing back more than 100 years. A number of cities had their coldest average tempe
rature for any month on record truly stunning in a climate that s running close to a
record-high global air temperature. Meanwhile, February proved to be the warmes
t winter month ever documented across a huge swath of the West. Alaska wasn t as c
onsistently warm as parts of California through the month, but a few extremely m
ild air masses pushed into the state, helping produce the first thundersnow on r
ecord in Nome and an all-time monthly high of 53F in the town of Homer.

Figure 1. Instead of slowly rising through February, as climatology would have i

t, daily highs and lows in Syracuse, NY, sagged into colder and colder realms as
the month went by. Each dashed column represents one month, with dark blue trac
es showing observed highs and lows. The green band indicates 30-year average hig
hs and lows, with pink and blue showing daily record highs and lows, respectivel
y. Image credit: NWS/Binghamton, NY.
Below is just a sampling of the many monthly records set at various points in th
e past four weeks. One hint of the state records to come: according to the North
east Regional Climate Center, Maine had its coldest average temperature of any F
ebruary, with a mere 2.5F for the entire state.
Coldest month on record
Bangor, ME: 6.1F, old record 8.4F (Jan. 1994)
Syracuse, NY: 9.1F; old record 12.1 (Feb. 1934)
Buffalo, NY: 10.9F; old record 11.6 (Feb. 1934)
Rochester, NY: 12.2F, old record 12.6F (Feb. 1934)
Worcester, MA: 14.2F; old record 14.4F (Feb. 1934)
Coldest February on record
Caribou, ME: 2.8F; old record 4.1F (1993)
Portland, ME: 13.8F; old record 13.9F (1934)
Youngstown, OH: 13.7F; old record 15.2F (1934)
Cleveland, OH: 14.3F; old record 15.2F (1875)
Chicago, IL: 14.6F; tied with Feb. 1875
Hartford, CT: 16.0F; old record 16.5F (1934)
Harrisburg, PA: 20.9F; old record 21.4F (1934)
Warmest winter month on record (Dec., Jan., Feb.)
Salt Lake City, UT: 43.9F; old record 42.9F (Feb. 1907)
Reno, NV: 46.3F; old record 46.0F (Feb. 1995)

Seattle, WA: 48.8F; old record 48.7F (Feb. 1977)

Portland, OR: 49.2F; old record 48.8F (Feb. 1991)
San Francisco, CA (downtown): 59.5F; old record 58.9F (Feb. 1986)
Las Vegas, NV: 60.0F; old record 58.6F (Feb. 1995)
Warmest February on record
Flagstaff, AZ: 39.7F; old record 38.2F (Feb. 1947)

Figures 2 and 3. The nation s split climate of the last month is captured in these
contrasting images taken near (left) Hollister, CA, on Feb. 24 and (right) Free
port, ME, on Feb. 19. Image credits: Jan Null (left), wunderphotographer caprita
ur (right).
How it felt on the ground
The most concentrated impacts were felt in Boston, where multiple storms left a
record snow total for any month (64.8 , smashing the previous record of 43.3 from J
an. 2005) and a year-to-date total of 103.9 as of Sunday night, March 1. That s les
s than 6 inches from the all-time seasonal snow record of 107.6 set in 1995-96. T
he scrappy residents of Boston coped with the snow as best they could, drawing o
n more than a few dashes of bleak humor, but this event was truly a disaster for
countless people in the Boston area who lost days or weeks of pay because of tr
ansportation snarls. Though fewer in number, residents of Maine dealt with cold
and snow that were arguably the worst in a lifetime for many who are accustomed
to dealing with harsh winter weather.
If we pull back to examine the winter as a whole, it s the western warmth that rea
lly stands out. More than 20 reporting stations saw their warmest winters on rec
ord, including San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Portland,
Oregon. December was very mild nationally (the 2nd warmest in 120 years of U.S.
record keeping), which blunted the ability of the last few frigid weeks to set a
ny coldest-winter records in the eastern U.S. Flowers are blooming on California
hillsides weeks ahead of schedule. Pleasant as all this might seem to folks fre
ezing in the East, the warmth and relative dryness have left much of the West vu
lnerable to major drought impacts in the coming summer.
The next post will be Wednesday at the latest.