(Radio Iowa/KJAN) – The calendar says spring doesn’t arrive until March 19th, but meteorological winter actually ended yesterday (Thursday), making today (Friday) the first day of meteorological spring. State climatologist Justin Glisan says it was cold and snowy, sure, but it really wasn’t much of a winter. “For December-January-February, third warmest winter on record,” Glisan says, “almost seven degrees above average. We’ve been throwing around the phrase ‘the lost winter,’ given how warm conditions were.”

As for the just-ended month of February, Glisan says what little snow fell didn’t stick around long. “If we’re looking at the average temperature, it was about 36 degrees,” Glisan says, “second warmest February in 152 years of records. That average is actually the climatological average temperature for March.” The statewide average for precipitation during February was only two-tenths of an inch, making it Iowa’s third-driest February on record. Glisan says forecast models predict March will be warmer than normal, with good chances for increased precipitation.

Weather data for February in Atlantic, shows we were much warmer and drier than average, last month. The Average High was 53, and the average Low was 21. Typically, we would have had a High of 35 and a Low of 15. Precipitation (melted snowfall) amounted to just one-tenth (.10″) of an inch, which was considerably less than the .96″ we would normally expect. Snowfall for the month was just one-inch.The data was compiled at KJAN, the official National Weather Serving reporting site for Atlantic.

Looking ahead, we find the Average High for the month of March, in Atlantic, is typically 48 degrees, while the Low should average out to be around 26. Precipitation (rain & or melted snow) is typically just under an inch, at 2.38 inches.