Cold February wraps up a cold winter

[March 05, 2010]  CHAMPAIGN -- Based on preliminary data in Illinois, the statewide average temperature for February was 25.1 degrees, 5.1 degrees below normal. Snowfall for February was above normal. Amounts ranged from 6 inches in southern Illinois to over 18 inches in the Quad Cities and Chicago areas, according to Jim Angel, state climatologist, of the Illinois State Water Survey.

The cold February, along with colder-than-normal temperatures in December and January, made this the 19th-coldest winter on record.

Winters in the late 1970s were still much colder, with a virtual tie between the winter of 1977-1978 at 19.6 degrees and the winter of 1978-1979 at 19.9 degrees.

Winter snowfall totals for December through February ranged from about 45 inches in northeast Illinois to just under 15 inches in southern Illinois.

This was 1 to 3 inches above normal for southern Illinois to over 10 inches above normal in northern and western Illinois. Wintertime precipitation, both rainfall and the water content of snow, measured 7.04 inches and was 0.35 inches above normal.

All indications are that soil moisture is above normal across the state. Much of northern and western Illinois still have some snow cover to melt as well. The latest National Weather Service outlook for March calls for an increased chance of below-normal temperatures in the southern two-thirds of Illinois. It also calls for an increased chance of drier-than-normal conditions for the month.

"This has been an unusually cold and snowy winter for Illinois and much of the nation. I think everyone is ready for spring now," Angel said.

The Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a division of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, is the primary agency in Illinois concerned with water and atmospheric resources.

[Text from file received from the Illinois State Water Survey]