If you had been checking out the sky during February, you would have noticed a lot of beautiful sights millions of miles away that enhanced the late winter sky.
One evening I noticed the moon along with Jupiter and Venus all aligned in a perfectly clear sky. Several other nights the moon was higher in the sky and the planets were very bright above the horizon.
A couple of folks commented about the halo around the moon and what that meant and what caused this phenomenon. How are halos, sundogs and sun pillars created? The atmosphere does more than produce our daily weather: From sunny to cloudy days, dry to wet, stormy to snowy. It is also capable of producing colorful displays when conditions are right.
A halo is a ring or light that forms around the sun or moon as the sun or moon refracts off ice crystals present in a thin veil of cirrus clouds. The halo is usually seen as a bright, white ring although sometimes it can have color.
Many of us have seen sundogs and never realized what they were. Sundogs are colored spots of light that develop due to the refraction of light through ice crystals. They are located approximately 22 degrees either left, right or both from the sun, depending on where the ice crystals are present. The colors usually go from red closet to the sun, out to blue on the outside of the sundog. Sundogs are also known as mock suns or parhelia, which means “with the sun.”
Sun pillars appear as a shaft of light extending vertically above the sun, most often at sunrise or sundown. They develop as a result of ice crystals slowly falling through the air, reflecting the sun’s rays off of them. Look for sun pillars when the sun is low on the horizon and cirrus clouds are present.
If February’s weather was an indication of an early spring, we could be in for one despite the groundhog and his shadow. Mother Nature steered the snow and nearly the rain away from the region for most of the month, except the last day when we measured 1.22 inches of rain. Had the rainfall at the end of the month been all snow we could have been shoveling about a foot of white stuff.
Flowers have begun to bloom, trees are budding up rapidly, spring is only two weeks away and daylight saving time will be returning, I’ve noticed birds returning as my cats lounge in the window, and everybody is ready for some great weather.
All the signs point to spring but, as we all remember, we’ve had some monster snowstorms in March right along with bone chilling temperatures, so we should remain on guard because March can be very unsettled.
Last month’s weather was absolutely insane across the United States with California and parts of the West reeling from drenching rains and very heavy snowfall. Bitter cold gripped the northern tier while parts of the South, Texas, Oklahoma and other areas of the country were battered by severe weather and tornadoes. Much of the East and Southeast enjoyed a relatively warm February.
Precipitation for February looked rather grim until a fast-moving storm system dropped 1.22 inches of rain on the 27th to save the month. Total precipitation for February was 2.16 inches, which is .22 inches below the average of 2.38 inches.
The maximum temperature for the month was a summer-like 76 degrees while the minimum crept to a frigid 9 degrees. Our average maximum temperature was 51.9 degrees and the average minimum was 29.6 degrees. Total snowfall for February amounted to a few flurries with no measureable snow.
The temperature profile for February was unbelievable. Two days were in the 70-degree range, six days were in the 60s, seven days in the 50s, eight days remained in the 40s, four days in the 30s and just one day failed to climb out of the 20s.
Forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center are calling for temperatures in March to average slightly below normal while precipitation looks too close to call, so it could be above, below or about average. The 90-day outlook for March, April and May looks as though both temperature and precipitation could average above normal.
Although winter wasn’t too tough on the Queen City, we still have a few weeks to go before we’re totally out of the woods. March is a transition month as we say goodbye to winter and hello to spring. Relax and enjoy! Weatherwise will return in April.