Leap Day: The final day of meteorological winter was first instituted by Julius Caesar

There's an extra day on the calendar next week: Feb. 29.

Leap Day.

For most, Leap Year is a reminder that the summer Olympics are on their way, as is the U.S. presidential election.

To a few, the date hints of the reign of Julius Caesar.

However the day is viewed, temperatures forecast in the 50s are proof that winter is coming to an end.

What is the weather like on Leap Day?

Weather records from Feb. 29 look a little different than they do on all the other days, according to Keith Jaszka, a meteorologist who works in the Cleveland office of the National Weather Service.

"It's a calendar day that happens only once every four years," Jaszka explained. "We don't tally average rainfall as well as average snowfall for that particular calendar day."

We do know that on Feb. 29, 2012, a total of 0.99 inches of rain fell in Ohio, making it what's considered the state's wettest Leap Day in history.

After that, all we really have is temperature records.

The day's normal high is 41 degrees. The typical low is 25.

"The record warm high temperature is 68 — that was set in 2012," Jaszka said. "The record cold low temperature was minus 2 — that was set in 1980."

The way-too-early forecast shows Leap Day this year could be in the 50s and rainy.

March 1, the day after Leap Day, is the meteorological first day of spring.

What does Julius Caesar have to do with Leap Year?

The first Leap Day was implemented in 46 B.C., according to Space.com.

It was then that Caesar was advised by the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria that solar years are actually 365.25 days long, not just 365 as humanity had thought.

"To account for that residual quarter of a day, an extra day — a leap day — was added to the calendar every four years," the website reads. "This new 'Julian' calendar was used throughout the Roman Empire and by various Christian churches."

Centuries later, the world learned that the Julian Calendar was still about 11 minutes and 14 seconds off each year because a solar year is actually 364.242 days, not simply 365.25.

"As a result, by the year 1582 — thanks to the overcompensation of observing too many leap years — the calendar had fallen out of step with the solar year by a total of 10 days," Space.com reads.

Pope Gregory XIII, with the help of mathematician and astronomer Christopher Clavius, introduced the Gregorian Calendar, which we still use today.

"To catch things up, 10 days were omitted after Thursday, Oct. 4, 1582, making the next day Friday, Oct. 15," Space.com reads.

The pope then decreed that century years not divisible by 400 would no longer be a Leap Year as they had been scheduled. That change with the Gregorian calendar meant 1700, 1800 and 1900 became standard years — the only century years since that were also a Leap Year were 1600 and 2000. The next century that will be a Leap Year will be 2400.

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Leap Day, Feb. 29, is next week, and there's lots of history behind it