Recap of February 2015
For Toledo, February 2015 ended up being the first snowiest and the second coldest February.
7:56 a.m., Sun, Mar 1, 2015 - Light snow began falling in West Toledo a little before 11:00 p.m. on Feb 28. Since the snow area moved in from the southwest, it started snowing earlier at Toledo Express Airport, located in southwestern Lucas County. And apparently, it snowed enough in the waning moments of Feb 2015 for TOL to set the new record for snowfall in February.
Feb 2015 wound up being the second coldest February and the third coldest of all months. Toledo's records date back to 1874. When combining snow and cold, Feb 2015 may be number one in the most wintry category.
Mar 1, 2015 Toledo Blade story has more info.
During the final hour of February, 2015, 0.3 inch of snow fell at Toledo Express Airport. With 25.0 inches having fallen earlier in the month, that was just enough to break the 25.2-inch record set in 2011.
On the cold front, February ended Saturday with the month’s third record-breaking morning low, along with one tie. The -9 reading at Toledo Express Airport beat out a -7 record that had been set just last year.
But by the time the Proctors hit the trails early Saturday afternoon at Oak Openings Metropark, the mercury at the nearby airport had climbed to 17, warmer than the high temperature on eight of the last 13 days.
With an average daily mean temperature of 12.4 degrees Fahrenheit, it was the coldest month in Toledo since the 11.8-degree February, 1978, and the third-coldest month here since such record-keeping began in the 1870s, according to the National Weather Service. Toledo’s coldest month on record was January, 1977, with an average temperature of 9.6 degrees.
The cold was “locked in” by the jet stream, a high-speed wind flow aloft that steers storms and air masses, meteorologists said. In this case, it ushered wave after wave of frigid arctic air into eastern North America, sometimes all the way to south Florida.
Regarding the record snowfall, more than half the month’s tally fell in its first four days, and most of that occurred on Feb. 1, when a strong winter storm dumped 10 inches at Toledo Express Airport and even higher amounts nearby.
A brief warm-up the next weekend, including some light rain, took away some snow, but otherwise Toledo and environs kept a white carpet for all of February, which meteorologists said was an important factor in the sustained deep freeze that settled over the region after Feb. 11.
During February’s remaining 17 days, Toledo’s official high temperature at Toledo Express Airport reached 30 only once, on the 22nd, and that was after a morning low of 2.
On only two other days did the mercury get above 24. And on more than half of those days — nine, to be precise, and including the final two — the morning low was below zero.
The lowlight of all that cold was the morning of Feb. 20, when the temperature tumbled to -19 at Toledo Express and even further in parts of southeast Michigan. It was the coldest February temperature recorded for Toledo and the second-coldest ever, surpassed only by a -20 reading back on Jan. 21, 1984.
And now a load of psychobabble BS:
“Even a lot of the winter activities we enjoy are more difficult when it’s this rough,” added Peter Mezo, a visiting assistant professor of psychology at UT. “And with the lack of activity, the body naturally down-regulates, and we’re more likely to feel the blues.
No blues here. I enjoy it, and so do others.
Scott Carpenter, spokesman for the Metroparks of the Toledo Area, said activity “is certainly a lot lighter” when the cold is extreme, “but we’ve got diehards who won’t stay in for anything, no matter what the conditions.”
February was a busy month, Mr. Carpenter said, on the Metroparks’ ski trails, sledding hills, and ice rink, although the rink needed maintenance with each snowfall.