MOLINE, Ill. — As the weather starts to warm up in the usually frigid month of February, many are wondering if winter is over.
Tim Gross, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said that those hoping for winter's end will likely have to deal with a few more bouts of cold. He pointed to the uncharacteristically warm December of 2023 being followed by a snowy January as evidence that the current warmth doesn't mean much when forecasting the future.
“It’s definitely not over,” Gross said. “We’ve actually had the fourth warmest December on record, followed by the second snowiest January on record.”
A warm winter has recently become more common. News 8's Meteorologist Andrew Stutzke said there’s a reason behind it.
“There's a number of variables for that from climate change to El Niño,” Stutzke said. “This particular year, it's El Nino that has the heaviest influence on why February has been so warm."
Is winter over?
With some history to look back on, both meteorologists said there’s reason to believe there will be snow during the months of March and April.
"In February of 2017, we had five days with high temperatures in the 70s,” Stutzke added. “The following March we had half a foot of snowfall during that month itself.”
Andrew dug into the record books and found that in 74 previous warmer-than-average February months, 95% of the following March months had trace amounts of snow with 38% of the following March months having more than an inch of snow.
Still, residents can hope that this year's March isn't as snowy as March of 2023.
"Normally, we see about four inches of snow for the month of March,” Gross said. ”Last March, we actually saw 10 and a half inches of snow so there’s a good chance it will come back.”
But in short, no, winter is not over, and it's fair to assume that there will be more snowfall.
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