February 2023 Weather Recap: 3rd Mildest, 10th Driest
Following the mildest January on record, February 2023 was the third mildest February (behind Feb. 2018 and 2017). One anomaly was an Arctic flash-freeze which saw the temperature drop to 3° on 2/4. (By contrast, January’s coldest reading was 28°.) Overall, the month was 5.2 degrees milder than average (January was 9.8 degrees above average), which was largely due to a 13-day period between Feb. 8-20 that had temperatures that were 12 degrees above average.
The month was 2.4 degrees colder than January. While the two months had similar average highs (48.6° in Feb., 48.7° in Jan.), February's average low was 4.6 degrees colder (33.6° vs. 38.2°)
The range in temperature during the month was 67 degrees (from 3° to 70°), which was the greatest range in February since 1961 (-2° to 65°). Average range in February is 48 degrees (13° to 61°). The reading of 70° on 2/16 was the twelfth time a reading of 70+ was reported in February and a year’s earliest date for a reading of 70+ since 2007.
Feb. 1 had the first measurable snow of the winter (0.4"), the latest date on record. The next snowfall was nearly four weeks later (Feb. 27-28) when 1.8" fell. 32 other Februarys have had less snow than February 2023's 2.2", including last February and February 2020, which had 2.0" and a trace, respectively.
1.28” of precipitation was reported, an amount that made it the tenth driest on record (0.01" less than February 1872, which was pushed out of the top 10). The greatest amount from a storm was 0.55" on 2/27-28.
The winter of 2023 was the third mildest on record (behind the winters of 2002 and 2016, but January and February 2023 became the mildest first two months of any year, easily beating Jan-Feb 1990. Finally, the winter of 2023 was the 18th in which December was the coldest month.
Here are other February recaps:
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