CLEVELAND — Welcome to February! Northeast Ohio is starting the new month on a very cold note. Temperatures are in the 20s with a mixture of sun, clouds and even some snow in the snowbelt. For perspective, highs in the mid-20s are about 10 degrees below average for the beginning of February. Typically, the high for February 1 is 36 degrees, and the low is around 22 degrees.
Thursday will be closer to normal with highs in the mid-to-upper 30s. However, if you look at the temperature over the next several days, you will notice a lot of peaks and valleys with even colder temperatures than today and then another warm-up.
An arctic cold front is expected for the end of this work week, dropping our highs into the teens. Wind chill values will likely fall below zero as well. However, the cold snap does not last long. Temperatures will build into the 40s by Sunday and perhaps into the 50s by early next week.
In fact, the Climate Prediction Center shows a strong signal for above temperatures during the 6-10 day outlook and the 8-14 day outlook. That means there will likely be more days that are warmer than normal into at least the middle of the month.
Meanwhile, we are below normal for seasonal snowfall amounts. Typically, by the end of January, Cleveland has picked up 35.2 inches of snow. So far, Cleveland has only received 17.5 inches of snow. That puts us 17.7 inches below normal. In the month of January, Cleveland only received 11 inches of snow when 18.4 inches is more typical.
If you are hoping for more snow, winter is not over yet. Spring begins in 47 days, so we are only about halfway through winter. Additionally, Northeast Ohio has been known to have snow linger well into spring.
You can also expect more and more daylight. Since winter began, the amount of daylight has increased by about 53 minutes. The increase in daylight will become more noticeable during the month of February. By the middle of the month, the amount of daylight will increase about 2 minutes and 30 seconds every day! By the end of the month, it will be closer to 2 minutes and 45 seconds! Spring begins this year on March 20 at 5:24 PM. By that time, there will be 12 hours and 8 minutes of daylight. That means over the next 47 days the amount of daylight will double compared to the first half of winter with an increase of about two hours.
