Nice winter likely to continue

Whether or not the groundhog sees its shadow today, winter will continue, but it's likely to remain warmer than normal, experts say.

The National Weather Service on Monday released a 30-day outlook predicting above-normal temperatures for Eastern Iowa and precipitation at or slightly above the approximately 1 inch that typically falls in February.

“The jet stream has stayed farther north than usual this winter,” helping to keep arctic air out of Iowa, “and there is no sign yet of it moving back south,” State Climatologist Harry Hillaker said Wednesday.

In 139 years of record keeping, only eight other December-January periods have been warmer than the one just concluded, Hillaker said.

The average statewide temperature in January was 25.4 degrees, 6 degrees warmer than normal. December's statewide average temperature was 29.8 degrees, 6.9 degrees above normal. For the two months combined, this winter's average temperature of 27.6 degrees exceeded normal by 6.4 degrees.

“This winter seems even milder than it is because the last four winters have been above average for cold and snow,” Hillaker said.

The statewide average snowfall stood at 10 inches through the end of January – a little more than half the normal statewide average of 19.1 inches through the first two months of winter. That is the 19th lowest total in 126 years, Hillaker said.

Hillaker said temperatures would have been higher in the latter half of January had snow cover not suppressed them in much of the state. As of Wednesday, however, snow had melted in all but the northeastern third of the state, and coverage there was rapidly thinning.

At Cedar Rapids, daylight increases from 10 hours and 1 minute on Feb. 1 to 11 hours and 13 minutes on the last day of the month. The average high temperature increases from 30 degrees at the start of the month to 38 degrees at its end.