GREENSBORO, N.C. — You just lived through a February that was more like spring than winter. That's right, this year winter hasn't exactly played by the rules in North Carolina. It's breaking weather records too.
Your WFMY News 2 Weather team is breaking down the month by the numbers and how unusual it is compared to historical records in our area. Let's dive into it.
Record Breaking Temperatures
Let's state the obvious. This February was warmer than average, by a lot. We all know this, but we're here to compare the numbers and see how they stack up.
Looking at the overall temperature for the month, this February is the 2nd warmest on record for the Triad. When we say average temperature, we're taking the daytime highs combined with the nighttime lows and averaging them throughout the whole month. This was 7.9 degrees above our long-term average and only lost out to one year -- 2017.
Considering daytime high temperatures, our average high temperature this February was a hair over 61 degrees. That's incredibly warm and ranks as the 4th warmest average high temperature for a February on record here. It's 7.9 degrees warmer than our long-term average.
Switching to nighttime low temperatures, was a record breaker. Our average overnight low this February was 40.5 degrees. That's 7.8 degrees above our long-term average and ranks as #1 all-time for our area.
Get this. All of the temperatures we just listed would be above average for March. So, this February was warmer than an average March in our area. It was more like spring than winter.
Very few cold nights
It wasn't even cold at night this month. What do we mean by that? Well, let's take a look at the number of nighttime lows that got down to 32 degrees.
This year, we only had 4 nights that got below freezing in the month of February. That hasn't happened before on record for our area.
Looking at the list, a handful of other years had very few freezing nights like this one. Interestingly enough, many of these years have come recently. Warm Februaries have become more common in our area.
Lots of 70° Days
Most days were warm this month, but a handful of days were very warm this month.
By the numbers, there were 6 days this month that warmed above 70 degrees. Two of those days warmed above 75 degrees, and one day warmed above 80 degrees.
On average, we have above two days a year that reach 70 degrees in February. This year's six rank second all time. 2017 had a whopping 11 of those days.
The 81 degree high temperatures on Feb 23, 2023 tied our warmest temperature in the winter season all-time.
No Snow
We did not have any snow this February. In fact, we haven't had any measurable snow this winter.
If you're a snow lover, you don't need us to tell you how this winter has gone. So far this year we have only had a trace of snow when some flurries fell in the middle of the night on January 14th.
It is very rare for us to not have any snow at this point in the winter season. It has been 30 years since we've only had a trace of snow through the three months of December, January, and February.
The last time that happened was the winter of 1991-1992. There have only been 4 winters all time with only a trace of snow. (A trace of snow means flakes fly in the air but either don't stick or aren't measurable. Measurable snow is considered a tenth of an inch or more)
There is still a chance we could record some snow in March.
Pollen Causing Problems
Warm weather is starting our allergy season early. We know this by looking at our daily pollen reports. They've been coming in high since the middle of February and don't show any signs of slowing down.
We can expect the allergy season to continue through March and April until trees are finished pollinating.