Mar 1, 2015

March 1st - Meteorological Spring is Here

Today marks the start of meteorological Spring! Good riddance to February, too. Thank goodness this year wasn't a leap year!!

Anyway here is a quick summary of February 2015 for the area in the table below
Location
Avg. Temperature
For February
Departure
From Normal
Rank for
Coldest February
Rank for Coldest
All Months
Minimum Temps
 at or Below
Zero
Albany
12.7°
- 13.2°
Tied for 4th
4th
12
Glens Falls
7.3°
- 14.0°
1st
4th
20
Poughkeepsie
15.6°
- 13.0°
1st
2nd
12
Bennington
10.3°
- 14.7°
N/A
N/A
19
Pittsfield
11.2°
- 12.6°
N/A
N/A
16
Region wide this past February was one of the coldest months since January of 1994. In some places it was one of the coldest Februaries ever and one of the Top 10 coldest months observed.

In addition to the record cold, the monthly snowfall total of 30.6 inches for Albany made it the 5th snowiest February on record.

The snowfall records for Albany go back to 1885 while temperature records go back to 1820.

The period of  records for Glens Falls goes back to 1945 with some months of data missing in 1945 and 1947.

Poughkeepsie's records go back to 1949 with data missing from January 1993 through July 2000.

I'll have a recap of the winter weather for the area later today along with a preview of meteorological Spring.

Credits:
National Climate Data Center Asheville, NC
NWS Albany, NY
Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) Cornell College