After a Warm January, Weather Service Changes February Forecast to Cold
No one will be able to argue that we had a normal January. Throughout the entire country, with the exception of southern Florida, temperatures ranged well above normal, as evidenced by the map below, courtesy of the Climate Prediction Center:
While temperatures here in north Georgia were anywhere from 6 to 8 degrees above normal (I recorded a mean January temperature of 48.3 degrees, compared to the Atlanta Airport normal of 42.7 — Atlanta recorded an even warmer average temperatures, with 49.5), the real extraordinary relative warmth was in the upper Plains states, which recorded mean temperatures in the 30s, 15 to 16 degrees above their normals.
If you believe the Weather Service, though, February may turn out to be Februgly after all. After predicting warmer than normal temperatures in its initial forecast back on January 19th, today’s revised forecast calls for a 40% chance of below normal temperatures for the month:
The precipitation forecast also calls for a 33% chance of above normal precipitation, about the same as what was predicted in the earlier forecast. Keep in mind, though that the average February high temperature is 56 degrees, so a colder than normal forecast doesn’t mean as much as it would in January.
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