Go big or go home, right? Well, this February is going very big. It will likely be the snowiest on record in all of Southeastern New England. While it will most likely not be the coldest month on record, odds are it will be the second coldest – and we’re not just talking about February. The temperature has not reached 40° since January 19, and there has not been a warmer than normal day since January 25!
A good chance that 2015 is the coldest combined Jan-Feb on record in Providence.
1918 Jan 20.3° Feb 25.9°
2015 Jan 26.2° Feb 18.6° (so far)— Fred Campagna (@FredCampagna) February 19, 2015
Providence is averaging 18.6° through first 19 days of February. On track for second coldest of ANY month on record. Feb 1934 (17.4°) #RIwx
— Fred Campagna (@FredCampagna) February 19, 2015
The pattern in the next couple of weeks looks very cold, but one day may be the fly in the ointment for keeping some of these streaks going. A storm system arriving late Saturday has the potential to end the below normal streak and possibly drive the temperature above 40° in Providence. At this point, I’m hoping it continues to trend colder and we somehow keep both streaks intact! Go big or go home, right?
The storm will likely bring accumulating snow Saturday evening followed by a wintry mix after midnight into Sunday morning. We’ll cover that in-depth on rightweather.com in the next couple of days. It will be followed by (what else?) another Arctic blast early next week. Some models want to bring a storm north from the North Carolina coast to New England in the midweek. That looks plausible to me, and it could be another significant snow event in Southeastern New England. Still a long way out, though…
The trough of cold air in the Eastern United States will persist into March, and you can count on more snow threats through the first week of the month, and probably longer than that. I have heard some “where’s spring?” comments lately. Are you kidding me? It’s still February! In a normal winter that’s a ridiculous thought. In this winter, I would not hold my breath waiting for a warm-up. Cold breeds cold, and with two feet of snow on the ground, this pattern has legs for a while. If anything, count on a late spring in Southern New England…and don’t shoot the messenger!
