It's All Relative...

Seasonable temperatures this week can feel so much colder after flirting with Spring-like weather last week. One of our CBS 6 camera operators asked me this morning if we have had “long winters” like this one the past several years. But I say, it’s all relative!

In fact, last February was quite similar to this month so far, with Spring-like swings up into the 60’s and 70’s and dives back down into the 30’s with winter precipitation. So the past two Februaries have teased us with Spring before slapping us back to “reality” with seasonable Winter temperatures. That makes the seasonably cold temperatures feel relatively much colder after a warm spell.

Snowfall has not been that impressive this Winter so far, with only a few events bringing several inches of snow to parts of the state. Richmond has only received 0.3" of snow this Winter (all of it falling this month), compared to a cold-months average by this time of year of 9.2" of snowfall. And this Winter has not been "unusually long" either. Richmond’s average high does not get back up to 60 degrees until March 20 anyway, which coincidentally is also the First Day of Spring (the Vernal Equinox) this year. So maybe Punxsutawney Phil was right after all, that we did still have six more weeks of Winter in store!

Perhaps many of us simply remember Winter 2001-02, which was the 7th warmest December to February on record for Richmond with an average temperature of 43.6 degrees.

Recent Februaries where some highs reached 70+ degrees:
2006
2005
2004
2002 (high 78 degrees on Feb 1st, high 41 degrees on Feb 28th...talk about a flip-flop!)

Recent Februaries where highs never hit 70+ degrees:
2007
2003
2001
2000

The last time Richmond had a Top 10 Coldest Winter was in the 1970’s, with #7 in 1977-78 (34.4 degrees average temperature) and #5 in 1976-77 (34.1 degrees average temperature). So it has been a while since temperatures consistently remained much colder than average through the Winter months. Still, feeling cold is all relative, right? I'd say that temperatures falling into the low 20's Tuesday morning is cold enough for me...just one more month until Spring officially begins!

--Carrie--