Ithaca, N.Y. — February had the coldest average temperature in Ithaca history.
The 21st Century Library Campaign – Tompkins County Public Library
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As the meteorologists at Cornell Weather said: “Yikes!”
“The average temperature in Ithaca for this February was the coldest on record–a frigid 10.6 degrees,” Cornell Weather wrote.
Here’s the weather chart posted by Cornell Weather:
Brian Crandall at “Ithacating in Cornell Heights” pointed out that the recent -22 F Tuesday morning played a pretty big contributing role in the record-breaking temperatures.
“The last time Ithaca was that cold was January 22, 2005; in fact, I can only find 10 days that were colder in the entire 122-year record. The monthly average stands at 10.6 F, 0.7 F less than 1979. Saturday will not be enough to warm up the average, so February 2015 will go down as the coldest month in Ithaca’s recorded history.
Yay?”
The good news is that the worst is all but certainly behind us, according to the National Weather Service.
Here’s what the NWS said today:
1) Overall it looks like we may be finally wrapping up our chances for true arctic air. We may get one more brief shot Thursday, but overall the next few days, and out to 10 days don’t look nearly as cold. Instead we will see periods of warmer air, along with some below normal stretches. Still nothing like we just went through and overall an improvement, if you are tired of the very cold air.
2) Due to the relaxing pattern (very cold air retreating north), we will see a fairly stormy period. Stormy may not just mean snowstorms, we will also be dealing with some ice/wintry mix or rain.
3) Our first shot at snow and then mainly ice will come late Tuesday into Wednesday. More info to come.
So we still may be battling with snow, but sub-zero days — not to jinx it or anything — may finally, really, hopefully be in the rear-view mirror.
The forecast for the week, from the NWS:
