Weather

February 2018: warmest February on record, locally and statewide

We all felt it. It was hot many days in February, and toasty on the others. In fact, the high temperature dropped below 70 degrees only one day in February and that on was on Feb. 3. There were 22 days with highs of at least 80 degrees.
We can average a month’s highs and lows, or we can get the average of the average highs and lows to get the average mean temperature. Regardless, how you measure it, they were all above average.
Let’s talk about the average mean temperature (average of the highs and lows, of each day added, and then divided by 28 days). The average mean temperature for February in Orlando is 63 degrees. February 2018’s average mean temperature in the city was 71.8 degrees. Melbourne’s average mean temperature is 62.7 degrees. Its February 2018 average mean temperature was 73.7 degrees. Daytona Beach also remained warmer. Its average mean is 60.4 degrees, and this past February it was 68.9.

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As a whole, this was the hottest February on record for Florida, with an average temperature of 69 degrees, which was 9.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average (1901-2000).

FEBRUARY 2018 IN THE U.S.

February also ranked warm across the entire nation. The average temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 35.4 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s 1.6 degrees above the 20th century average. This ranked among the warmest third of the 124-year period of record.
The meteorological winter ended on Feb. 28. After all data was analyzed for December, January and February, the average temperatures for the contiguous U.S. was 34 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s 1.7 degrees above average. The 2017-2018 winter also ranked among the third-warmest on record.

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WETTER THAN NORMAL FEBRUARY IN THE U.S.

Although precipitation was below average across much of the Southeast, southern Plains and West, there was record-setting precipitations observed across the mid- and lower Mississippi Valley, the Midwest and north of the Rockies. February precipitation for the contiguous U.S. was 2.84 inches, which was 0.71 inch above average.

California has its third-driest February on record, the driest since 1967. The below-average snowpack from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and southern Rockies contributed with the below-average precipitation in the Southwest.

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In January, about 38.4 percent of the contiguous U.S. was under a drought. February ended with about 31.3 percent under a drought.