February 2021 Summary

Morningrise

5 Februaries in a row now here with some snowfall, whereas every other month has been inconsistent. Very strange pattern.

February 2021 Toronto, ON Weather (Pearson Airport)

Well, after a boring January with mediocrely above seasonal temperatures, many overcast days with very little rain/snow (https://cdweather.boards.net/post/157234/thread), we had a somewhat spicy February with some real winter weather.

Highest Temp 8.4°C (24th)
Lowest Temp -16.0°C (17th)
Minimum High -9.1°C (13th)
Maximum Low -0.6°C (24th)

Avg High -1.6°C Dep -1.2°C
Avg Low -9.1°C Dep -0.4°C

Mean Temp -5.3°C Dep -0.8°C

Total Precipitation 46.5mm
Departure -1.2mm

Total Snow 40.5cm
Departure +16.5cm

Five Warmest Days by Daytime High

I. 24th 8.4°C
II. 28th 6.5°C
III. 27th 5.8°C
IV. 23rd 4.3°C (low -7.2°C)
V. 4th 4.3°C (low -0.7°C)

Five Coolest Days by Lowest Daytime High

I. 13th -9.1°C
II. 12th -8.3°C
III. 16th -7.0°C
IV. 8th -6.5°C
V. 7th -6.2°C

Snowiest Day: 8.8cm (16th), although some suburbs saw ~20cm that day

It sometimes amazes me that I live in it 

Actually, Dec/Jan/Feb can be quite rough at times but the rest of the year is fine by my standards. Cooler than I'd like and too prone to wintery weather in the shoulder seasons, but still liveable for me.

You're in Green Bay? It's okay, too snowy in the winter and I'd prefer warmer winters for those summer temps (or warmer summers for those winters, either one would be okay) but otherwise decent. Milwaukee is much better and an excellent climate by my standards, just still too wet in the winter.

Similar climates like Windsor, Ontario (my favorite in Canada) are definitely up there as far as ideal climates go for me. Nearly perfect temperature profiles, just too wet in the winter and perhaps a tad humid in the summer (not entirely sure - I greatly enjoy some humidity but have never lived in a climate with humid summers before, so I don't actually know if I just like it in very small doses like we get here or if I'd be okay with it all summer long).

Give me climates like Windsor, Milwaukee, Toronto, and even places with winters as cold as Minneapolis or Montreal (as long as they have decently warm summers, which both of those cities have for my tastes), and combine that with Saskatoon levels of dryness in the winter and that's more or less my ideal climate. I would also be fine going a bit warmer, like Vancouver winter temperatures (again with much less precipitation) with Toronto or Windsor level summers. That would be the warm end of an ideal climate for me, Minneapolis would be the cold end.

My Dad says green bay is the worst climate for winter in America because of the windchill reaching close to -40. 

February 2021 was about the best month I could ask for here in Norman, Oklahoma. While the Norman weather station stopped recording in January 2020 (there's also a Norman mesonet site I don't have easy access to), the Oklahoma City weather station racked up some impressive stats. It was the coldest month since December 1983 and the coldest February since 1978. It was also its first month with a mean temperature below freezing since December 2000. It was the snowiest month since February 2011. With 9 days of snow on the ground, it was the most since Feb. 2011, which also had that many. We had continuous snow cover from Sunday, February 14 to Saturday, February 20, making it the first time I'd seen around week of snowpack. It was technically slightly less than 168 hours, as it was from noon Sunday to late Saturday night, however. This was the coldest month I've experienced in my 22 years of life, and the low of -14°F (-25.5°C) [-12°F (-24.5°C) in Norman] was the coldest temperature I've been around for. When I was outside, it was only -7°F (-22°C), but that was still the coldest weather I've been outside in. The -14 was also the coldest temperature in OKC since February 12, 1899! And the high of 4°F (-15.5°C) on Feb. 15, 2021 was the coldest high since December 1989. We also had 8 days not exceeding 20°F (-7°C), and 6 days of snowpack of at least 6 inches (15 cm) (I only saw about 3 days with that much). Both of those set records.

It should be mentioned that our 10.6" (26.9 cm) of snow was spread out over multiple systems. We had freezing drizzle the nights of Feb. 8 and 9, then surprise flurries on the 11th and 12th that produced a dusting of accumulation. On the 14th we had our big system that was initially forecast to give us a foot, but "only" gave us 4.5" (11.4 cm) in Norman. Then on the night of the 16th we had a second system give me about 3.3" (8.4 cm) (more in OKC again). I had never seen significant accumulating snow on previous snowpack before (Feb 2015 in NC had snow on previous patchy snow). It was also cool to see all of the blowing and drifting snow from the storm on the 14th. Snow drifted up to two feet deep (60 cm), which I had never seen before either. Lake Thunderbird iced over, which was interesting to see, but by the time I got out there, it was starting to melt. Roads were impassable on Sunday the 14th and pretty bad until Thursday.

My only complaint about the month is the warmer weather we had near the end, but given I live at 35°N, this was a spectacular month, and it was fun to get a taste of what more northern places experience regularly.