Streak of 94 days with temperatures below 40 degrees ends

It's not spring yet, but it probably felt a lot closer this weekend.  We finally reached an official high of 40 degrees in Cedar Rapids on Saturday.  And the cold stretch to the last 40 degree reading before that almost set a record.

The National Weather Service says the longest period of time between daytime highs of at least 40 degrees in Cedar Rapids was 103 days set in the winter of 1978-79.  With an official 40 degree reading at the Eastern Iowa Airport on at 3:00 p.m. Saturday, the string of days colder than a high of 40 this winter stopped at 94.

The best weather in months brought a lot of people outdoors.  At one car wash in Marion, some of the people scrubbing off the winter grime and salt even wore shorts.

Sarah Franks was one of those people and she denied she was rushing the season a bit.

"No, I'm warm--it feels good out here," Franks said.

The signs of winter losing its grip was everywhere as bare spots became more visible in yards and the snowmelt was running down the streets and into the storm drains.

Temperatures in the 40's would normally bring out golfers, at least to the practice range, at St. Andrews in Cedar Rapids.  With the snow cover, nobody can hit a bucket of balls for probably another week.

This is the second winter in a row that golfers at St. Andrews didn't have at least a few days of weather warm enough to play a round or two or hit some balls on the driving range in the middle of winter.

Golfer Stan McGaffee played one of the last rounds here in early December.  He said "this place would be pretty crowded if it was 40 degrees--and no snow."

Those conditions didn't come this weekend...but it may not be too much longer.

- By Dave Franzman, KCRG-TV9