Mild and dry February lands on two top-10 lists in Berks County

Mar. 5—The mild winter continued last month in Berks County and the region with February showing up as third warmest on record and tied for eighth driest on record, and the meteorological winter ended at No. 2 warmest.

Meanwhile, a pattern flip is in the forecast offing with a possibility that March will be chillier than each of the first two months of the year.

Last month was in the running to better the warmest February in 2017, but a cold Feb. 25 "thrust a dagger into warmest February prospect," said Jeffrey R. Stoudt, Berks weather historian and founder of the Berks Area Rainfall Networks.

The average temperature for the day was 30 degrees, enough to drop the month to third. The month finished at 40.2 degrees, three-tenths behind 2017, and a tenth behind 1954, though it was much closer than a tenth.

Temperature records in Berks date to 1898 and precipitation records to 1869. The official site in Berks has been the automated equipment at Reading Regional Airport since early in 1999.

January 2023 finished at fourth warmest of the months that start a year at 40.7 degrees.

Many of the months in recent years that have finished among the warmest on record in their respective months haven't seen temperature spikes but simply an overall warmer-than-normal pattern.

August 2022 was the prime example of that: a No. 1 monthly finish by nearly a degree with only one date record, and that a warmest low.

Last month was no exception to that pattern — despite the lofty finish — with one date record for warmth set and another tied. And those marks from yesteryear were easy pickings. There were warmer days later in February that did not set date records.

Meanwhile, the same jet stream that has been keeping cold away — and with that minimizing chances for snow while other parts of the country have been blitzed — also kept storminess away and the month at 1.17 inches of precipitation tied with 1980 for eighth driest.

The comparisons continue with those Februaries in 2017 and 1954: 2017 at sixth driest with 1.03 inches and 1954 at 13th driest with 1.29 inches.

A close call for second

The National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, N.J., which oversees Berks County and much of the tri-state region, declared last month the second warmest February for Berks, but that's based on a simple calculation. A more precise examination of the figures gives 1954 the slightest of edges.

The average temperature for the month — in this case 40.2 degrees — is arrived at by adding each day's highs and each day's lows together and dividing by 56, or averaging the highs and lows, adding them together and dividing by 2.

But both of those methods loose minute details.

"The sum of the dailies divided by 56 indeed yields 40.2," said Stoudt, a retired meteorologist. "And the sum of the averages of highs and lows divided by 2 yields 42.5, which would round to 40.3 (for 1954).

"This is what might have been done in the WB era."

In 1954, measurements were taken by U.S. Weather Bureau personnel in downtown Reading.

"To hone in further, the sum of dailies — highs and lows —for February 1954 is 2,252, while the same for 2023 is 2,251," Stoudt said. "So this February fell just atomically short of 1954 for second."

The months are almost mirror images in the end, but the ride in February 1954 was a little wilder: A pair of 26-degree highs on the 12th and 13th with a rapid warmup to highs in the 70s on the 15th and 16th. The 73-degree high on the 16th remains the date record.

Winter roundup

The Mount Holly office calculated the December-through-February meteorological winter at 38.7 degrees, second to 1931-32 at 40.0. Again, a finer delineation of the numbers yields 40.1 for 1931-32.

The winter of 2022-23 supplanted 1997-98's 38.5 degrees for second.

Past, present, future

The automated equipment at the airport has been on the fritz, and most of last month's precipitation was an estimate based on a nearby gauge. It continues in March.

The weather service has either 0.22 inches for the episode or Friday is registered as an "M" for missing in the precipitation box. It remains to be seen what the Mount Holly office in consultation with Stoudt will come up with as a total.

The Friday-Saturday rainfall likely was as much or more than the entire month of February's precipitation total. Stoudt's equipment in Lincoln Park has registered 1.26 inches of precipitation for March.

In one shot, a top-10 finish among the driest Marches is nearly already off the table.

However, a shot at a place among the 10 chilliest Marches is still in play with a glance at the long-range forecast from AccuWeather.

That balmy February 2017 was followed by a colder March that included snowstorms. Then in 2018, the February wasn't that warm overall — though the first 80-degree February day occurred — but the March was nasty and a copy of a year earlier.

In 1932, the March was colder than the three months preceding it.

February weather

40.2°: Average temperature

33.1°: Normal

1.17″: Precipitation

2.61″: Normal

Snow: 0.3 inches (season, 3.7″)

Ice days (32 degrees or lower): 1 (season, 4)

Records

—High temperature: 62 degrees on the 9th for mildest low (59, 1960)

—High temperature: 61 degrees on the 10th for mildest low (tie, 1909 and 1960)

Warmest Februarys

40.5°: 2017

40.3°: 1954

40.2°: 2023

39.8°: 1998

38.5°: 1949

38.5°: 1953

38.4°: 1909

38.3°: 2012, 2018, 2019

Driest Februarys

0.47″: 2008

0.54″: 1892

0.68″: 1901

0.72″: 2002

0.96″: 1978

1.03″: 2017

1.16″: 1895

1.17″: 1980 and 2023

1.25″: 1968

Source: U.S. Weather Bureau/National Weather Service records dating to 1898 and 1869, respectively

February precipitation totals from the Berks Area Rainfall Networks with snow (/), where available:

Henningsville, 1.67; Shartlesville, 1.65/1.0; Adamstown, 1.60/0.4; Mohrsville, 1.57; Dryville, 1.50; Mohrsville SW, 1.50/0.6; Mohnton, 1.49; Oley Furnace, 1.48; Elverson NE, 1.45/0.3; (East) Reading, 1.45/0.3; Boyertown, 1.45; Lincoln Park, 1.44/0.3; Wyomissing, 1.43/0.2; Lobachsville, 1.41/0.5; New Morgan, 1.41/0.6; Cornwall Terrace, 1.39/0.3; Shillington — 1.39; Wernersville, 1.38; Boyers Junction, 1.36; Hopewell Park, 1.35; Frystown, 1.34; Unionville, 1.33; Pine Grove, 1.33; Hamburg, 1.32/1.3; West Reading, 1.30; Vinemont, 1.30 (traces); Womelsdorf, 1.29; Bernville, 1.29/0.4; Knauers, 1.26/0.6; Morgantown, 1.26; Cumru Township building, 1.25; Kutztown, 1.19; Muhlenberg Park, 1.15; Mertztown, 1.15; Greenfields, 1.08; Cacoosing, 1.02; Reiffton, 1.01; and Gibraltar, 0.94.