February, 2014

Winter in Southwest Ohio can be unpredictable, but February, 2014 can be best characterized as unusual.  While a few solid snows are likely every winter, most of February was spent socked in with cold and snow.  Snow came early in the month and several reinforcements meant that not only was the snow deep by SW Ohio standards, but it lasted.  Temperatures were also uncharacteristically cold, being blamed on the "polar vortex" bringing cold arctic air to the south.  There were also several days with very high winds and a good deal of ice as well.  The rain graph below shows only the small amount of rain that fell as liquid (and a little bit of melting), as the weather station was frozen solid for much of the month.
Towards the end of the month, a few warm days melted the snow until a late month cold spell brought temperatures down again.  March usually starts to look like spring, but winter storm warnings are accompanying the calendar page change.