February 2026 OBS & Discussion

[tdp146]

Flurries! Take that, AI Euro!

[Freezing Drizzle]

Current. 8:10 AM.  Low of 11 F here.

[ebwx]

Flurries in East Brunswick began around 8 am

[donsutherland1]

There were a few flurries in Larchmont, NY.

[TWCCraig]

13.8°F breezy with light snow

[qg_omega]

We got very lucky we got one real storm this winter

[Freezing Drizzle]

Some ice forming in the brackish water at the west end of Raritan Bay, here.  A thin layer extending out 100 to 200 yards (and in the boat basin) has formed.
Ice can spread rapidly once the freezing point is reached. I'll keep checking. Needs to be long-term cold spell to get ice to form in the Raritan Bay.

I haven't seen extensive ice in a decade, here.

[wthrmn654]

RIP to the 7 fishermen lost 55 miles off the coast of Massachusetts on Friday, 1 body found floating. 

[wthrmn654]

Ice boating out here on the bay started yesterday for first time in many years, can't recall last time they did but it's likely 2015 or even later then that! 

[MJO812]

15 minutes ago, qg_omega said:

We got very lucky we got one real storm this winter

Winter isnt over

Stupid post

[EastonSN+]

What a historic storm for the Carolinas 

[SACRUS]

9 / -1 off a low of 6 .  Flurries from what could have been.  Cold overall with some areas touching or pushing past freezing Mon - Wed.  Flurries snow showers Wed then again on Sat with reinfocing arctic clipper.   Euro has moderation in the 2/11 - 2/14 period and the GFS / others keep it cold. Looks mainly dry this week outside some snow showers/light snow Wed / Sat.  Longer range focus on the 2/11 - 21/3 period on GFS/Euro.

2/1 - 2/9 : Overall cold below to much below coldest 2/7 - 2/9
2/4 , 2/7 :  Snow showers / light snow
2/10 - 2/13 : Perhaps some moderation near normal
2/14-15 - beyond :  Overall cold.

[SACRUS]

 

Pull that storm 300 miles NW and we got it made

 

[Freezing Drizzle]

2 minutes ago, EastonSN+ said:

What a historic storm for the Carolinas 

How it will likely end up.

[EastonSN+]

4 minutes ago, Freezing Drizzle said:

How it will likely end up.

4th largest snowstorm in Charlotte history.

[SACRUS]

Records:

Highs:

EWR: 68 (1989)
NYC: 67 (1989)
LGA: 66 (1989)
JFK: 64 (2012)


Lows:

EWR: 1 (1935)
NYC: -2 (1920)
LGA: 3 (1961)
JFK: 4 (1961)

Historical:

 

1893 - Thunder and lightning accompanied sleet and snow at Saint Louis MO during the evening hours, even though the temperature was just 13 degrees above zero. (The Weather Channel)

 

1916: Seattle, Washington, was buried under 21.5 inches of snow, their most significant 24-hour snowfall. A total of 32.5 inches of wet snow accumulated over three days. The Seattle cathedral dome collapsed under the snow's weight.

1920: Atmospheric pressure builds over New England to extreme levels. Barometer in Portland, Maine reads 31.09 inches of mercury (1053 mb), the highest February sea-level pressure ever recorded in the Eastern US. Hartford, Connecticut hits 31.06 inches of mercury (1051 mb). The Eastern US record was set the previous day (January 31, 1920) in Northfield VT at 31.14 in, though it was the same air mass. The mercury dropped to -45° at Pittsburg, NH. The City data comes from Christopher Burt's list of extreme pressures for US Cities (Ref. WxDoctor) (Ref. Wilson Wx. History) (Ref. US Barometer Records by State)
The highest air pressure ever recorded in the US was 31.85 inches in mercury (1078.56 millibars) in January 31, 1989 in the city of Northway, Alaska. (Ref. Bob Swanson, USA TODAY's assistant weather editor, November 24, 2005)

1935: Minimum temperature for Washington, DC for the date 6°F (Ref. Washington Weather Records - KDCA)

1947: January 30th through February 8th, a great blizzard occurred in Saskatchewan, Canada. All highways into Regina were blocked. Railway officials declared the worst conditions in Canadian rail history. One train was buried in a snowdrift over a half-mile long and 36.7 feet deep.

1951 - The greatest ice storm of record in the U.S. produced glaze up to four inches thick from Texas to Pennsylvania causing twenty-five deaths, 500 serious injuries, and 100 million dollars damage. Tennessee was hardest hit by the storm. Communications and utilities were interrupted for a week to ten days. (David Ludlum)

 

1951: An ice and sleet storm began in late January and ended on February 1st rendered many roads impassable. Electricity and telephone service was disrupted.

 

1951 - The temperature at Taylor Park Dam plunged to 60 degrees below zero, a record for the state of Colorado. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)

 

1955: Seen first as a "well-defined cone-shaped funnel" over the Mississippi River, this F3 tornado cut a path from Commerce Landing to Clark in northeastern Mississippi. This tornado killed 20 and injured at least 141 individuals. Most of the deaths were in a plantation school. The following is from Thomas Grazulis, "Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991" book: "Despite the fact that a funnel was seen, that heavy objects were thrown long distances, and that the tornado was in a forecast box, the event was not officially called a tornado. A survey team state that since all debris was thrown in one direction, the event should not be listed as a tornado."

1969: Across central and eastern South Dakota contained a variety of winter weather causing many problems. Glazing due to heavy fog and drizzle periodically formed on utility lines causing numerous broken power lines. Periodically, strong winds caused widespread blowing and drifting snow resulting in many closed roads. Snowplows would open the roads and often drifting snow would close the roads again. Frequent uses of pusher type snowplows piled banks of snow 20 to 30 feet along the roads and it became impractical to open roads with this type of snowplow. Several rotary snowplows were flown in from military air bases outside of the state to open some of the roads in the eastern part of the state. Numerous school closings occurred during the month due to snow blocked roads. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

1982: A winter storm struck the Niagara Frontier and western southern tier of western New Your beginning on January 31st and continued through this date. Precipitation fell as a mixture of rain, freezing rain and snow. Winds gusted as high as 61 mph. Most of western New York's schools closed on the first as glazed highways and the high winds made driving extremely hazardous. Buffalo International Airport shut down most of the day due to ice accumulations up to an inch on the runways. The high winds caused local whiteouts and extreme cold wind chills. Thousands of area homes were without power as ice coated power lines throughout the area. There were numerous reports of traffic accidents including a tractor trailer that was blown off Route 219 in Orchard Park and six tractor trailers jack knifed and slid off the Southern Tier Expressway. The Father Baker Bridge, Fuhrman Boulevard, and the Skyway were closed because of icy pavement and zero visibility. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

 

1985 - Snow, sleet and ice glazed southern Tennessee and northern sections of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The winter storm produced up to eleven inches of sleet and ice in Lauderdale County AL, one of the worst storms of record for the state. All streets in Florence AL were closed for the first time of record. (1st-2nd) (The Weather Channel)

1987 - A storm in the Pacific Northwest produced wind gusts to 100 mph at Cape Blanco OR, and up to six inches of rain in the northern coastal mountain ranges. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1988 - Thirty cities in the eastern U.S. reported new record high temperatures for the date, including Richmond VA with a reading of 73 degrees. Thunderstorms in southern Louisiana deluged Basile with 12.34 inches of rain. Arctic cold gripped the north central U.S. Wolf Point MT reported a low of 32 degrees below zero. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1989 - While arctic cold continued to invade the central U.S., fifty-four cities in the south central and eastern U.S. reported new record high temperatures for the date. Russell KS, the hot spot in the nation with a high of 84 degrees the previous day, reported a morning low of 12 above. Tioga ND reported a wind chill reading of 90 degrees below zero. (The National Weather Summary)

1990 - Thunderstorms associated with an upper level weather disturbance produced severe weather across the eastern half of Texas during the late afternoon and evening. Four persons were injured at Waco TX where thunderstorms produced wind gusts to 80 mph. Thunderstorms produced wind gusts to 97 mph at Cotulla TX injuring two other persons. Golf ball size hail was reported at Whitney and northeast of Whitsett. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1996: Arctic outbreak pushes sub-zero cold from Washington State to East Coast. Duluth, MN -39°, International Falls -45°, Des Moines, IA -26°, La Crosse, WI -36°, Spokane, WA -24° were all February records. All time lows at Glasgow, MT -38°, Tower, MT ties the all time state record low at -60°. (Bob Ryan's 2002 Almanac) (Ref. Wilson More Information)

2002: A very large storm moved across the Great Lakes and lifted northeast to the St. Lawrence Valley. Dealing with the aftermath of this same system residents across the Ohio Valley had an ice storm for several days across parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Totals were a half to one inch thick downing trees and power lines. Around one million people were left without power across the three states. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

2003: NEXRAD radars across Texas and Louisiana captured the tragic images of the debris field from the Space Shuttle Columbia which disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere over Texas. Debris fell over a huge area, possibly from California to the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the densest debris fall was reported in the town of Nacogdoches, in eastern Texas. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

2011: Chicago IL - Feb. 1st and 2nd : Blizzard only started on the 1st Chicago receives a 20.2 inch snowfall in the blizzard of 2011 making it the third worst storm since snow records began in 1886 in Chicago (125 years). (See Feb. 2, 2011 for much additional information.)

2011 - One of the most significant events of the 2010-2011 winter season affected a widespread region from Texas to the Midwest and Northeast from February 1st to 3rd 2011. The system produced widespread heavy snow with blizzard conditions and significant freezing rain and sleet to other locations. Snowfall amounts of 10 to 20 inches were common from northeast Oklahoma to lower Michigan. The storm produced 20.2 inches at Chicago, the third heaviest snowfall in the city since their records began in 1886, along with a peak wind of 61 mph. Kansas City received just under 9 inches of snow. The high temp was 17 degrees.

[SACRUS]

 

 

Day light: 10H07M   gained about 52 minutes since the winter solstice and gaining more then 2minutes a day 

Rise: 7:06
Set: 5:14

I see the DST debate again increasing but as has been the case, it'll likely remain unchanged and DST will commence in 35 days.

[bluewave]

8 minutes ago, qg_omega said:

We got very lucky we got one real storm this winter

We finally got the Southern Stream to become active over the last 7 days. So it delivered our first KU Benchmark storm since 2022 with widespread 10”+ amounts across the Northeast. The benchmark track which is a prerequisite allowed several stations to finally have a 25” season before we even reached February.

But since the Western ridge has been so overpowering this winter, the big storm last weekend occurred with a deep trough out West and a transient Southeast ridge. So we needed a relaxation of the ridge for our big storm.

One of the December clippers also occurred with a trough out West and a transient Southeast ridge. But that event was Northern Stream dominant so there weren’t  widespread 10”+ amounts since the Atlantic and Gulf moisture couldn’t get tapped.

The ridge and trough axis was too far east today for the big ocean storm to come closer to the coast. So the Western ridge was just a little too overpowering this weekend. Same theme for much of the winter outside one of our December clippers and the big storm last weekend. 

The other thing is that getting two 10” events only 7 days apart has only happened once in our area since the 1990s. This was the rare twin 10”+ snowstorms only a few days apart in February 1994.

Even during the phenomenal 2010-2018 snowfall run we needed at least several weeks to reload the 10”+ snowfall pattern. The best run from this period was the 60”+ in 33 days from December 2010 into January 2011. But the storms were spaced out at longer than 7 day intervals.

Overpowering Western ridge relaxed for the clipper and benchmark storms

 

Late January benchmark track 

 

Ridge and trough axis today just a little too far east

 

 

[EasternLI]

Brutal.

[NorthShoreWx]

[Stormlover74]

25 minutes ago, EastonSN+ said:

4th largest snowstorm in Charlotte history.

Friend in ocean isle beach got 13"

[weatherpruf]

3 minutes ago, Stormlover74 said:

Friend in ocean isle beach got 13"

sil reported snow in kennesaw ga. don't know how much. get snow every 5 years or so there. have to wait til it melts. no other options....

[ILoveWinter]

What are the chances we continue the below freezing streak at CPK over the next few days? High forecasted for 31 tomorrow and 32 Tuesday. 

[Wannabehippie]

Bright sun in Riverdale, NJ. 9 degrees.

[SACRUS]

1 minute ago, ILoveWinter said:

What are the chances we continue the below freezing streak at CPK over the next few days? High forecasted for 31 tomorrow and 32 Tuesday. 

 Will be close Mon - Thu - each could get to or exceed freezing just as easily as staying below, especially Tue/Wed.  EWR and New Brunswik will likely go above one, two or each of these days.

[SACRUS]

 

Clearing out now.

[SnoSki14]

7 minutes ago, ILoveWinter said:

What are the chances we continue the below freezing streak at CPK over the next few days? High forecasted for 31 tomorrow and 32 Tuesday. 

Temps under sunny skies tend to over perform, snow cover could blunt it a bit but expecting streak to end. 

Forecast highs near New Brunswick are in the mid 30s this week 

[jm1220]

18 minutes ago, EasternLI said:

Brutal.

Got down to 31 at PBI. That's like NYC getting several degrees below zero or more and the suburbs down to -10. Jan 1994 type cold.

[CPcantmeasuresnow]

1 hour ago, SACRUS said:

 

Pull that storm 300 miles NW and we got it made

 

The trend east never stopped. Even Nova Scotia in danger of missing most of it now.

[CPcantmeasuresnow]

30 minutes ago, ILoveWinter said:

What are the chances we continue the below freezing streak at CPK over the next few days? High forecasted for 31 tomorrow and 32 Tuesday. 

Would be a shame to lose it to one hourly 33 degree reading this coming week but that's probably what will happen