Warmer weather returns

The last day the city's temperature was above freezing was Jan. 27.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Today marks a return to higher temperatures, but the National Weather Service isn't ready to concur with Punxsutawney Phil.
The famed weather-predicting Pennsylvania groundhog saw no shadow when he emerged from his hole early Feb. 2, forecasting an early spring.
Was the little critter right?
"I'm not going to say that," said Walter Fitzgerald, an NWS meteorologist in Cleveland. "He has his way of forecasting, and we have ours."
Today's forecast calls for temperatures in the 40s with rain likely in the morning and snow in the evening.
That's a marked departure from the bitter cold of the last few weeks. The last day the city's temperature was above freezing was Jan. 27, when it hit 37 degrees.
"We're getting back to closer-to-normal highs," Fitzgerald said.
Normal high for this time of year is 37 degrees with 20 degrees as the normal low.
How we fared
So far, Feb. 4 and 5 marked the coldest days this year. Both days saw a high of only 7 degrees with lows of minus 2 degrees and minus 5 degrees on Feb. 4 and 5, respectively.
NWS records show the lowest average February temperature for the city at 15.6 degrees in 1978. The highest was 1998 at 37 degrees.
Through Sunday, this month's average temperature is 13 degrees, but with an expected warming trend, we probably won't break the record.
At 20.5 inches of the white stuff through Sunday, it's already the fifth-snowiest February on record. The highest was 26.4 inches in 2003.
The most snow so far this month fell Feb. 13 when 10 inches dumped on the area, according to NWS.