The state climatologist says an unusual weather pattern that bounces us from extreme cold to unseasonable warmth appears likely to stick around for much of March. Harry Hillaker says it’s the same sort of pattern Iowans endured for most of February, a month where we ended up seeing very little snowfall — or rain.
Hillaker says it was uniformly dry with virtually everyplace in Iowa below-normal on precipitation. Much like this week, where high temperatures ranged from lows in the teens to highs in the 70s statewide, Hillaker says February averaged out to being about normal for temps. He says the first and last chunks of the month saw very mild weather but the middle of February featured very cold days, including one report of 26-below zero in Elkader, the coldest it’s been anywhere in Iowa in five years.
Overall, February ended up with a statewide average temperature slightly above normal.