Ceaseless Wind

The month started with a small temperature rally and the high actually reached 41 on the 3rd.  Warm, moist air over a chilly ground lead to a fantastic ice fog on the morning of the 3rd.

Ice Fog Coats Leaves. Photo by Leah Ikerd

But during these opening days, more winter weather was taking shape.  A snow and sleet system came up out of Arkansas on the 4th with mainly light totals.  But a bigger storm was on the horizon for the upcoming 6th and 7th.  Snow bands set up on the evening of the 6th laying down snow in portions of St. Clair, Vernon, Benton, Cedar and Hickory counties.

But the main thrust of this storm had always had its sights on northern Arkansas (again) and by Monday morning, areas of Fulton, Baxter, Sharp, Izard, Stone had picked up anywhere from 1.5 to 6″ of snow.  More heavy snow fell in this region later in the day but warm temperatures caused some of the snow to melt during the event. Little Rock summary link.

Snow Totals February 8th, 2010

 The Missouri portion of this storm was pretty decent too especially the final totals north of Springfield which were as high as 7 or 8″ in a few places. The Springfield summary link.

This snow was followed by the coldest air of the month with lows dipping  into the single digits and cold wind chills around the 9th.

Although a threat loomed of some rain/snow mix around the 18th through the 21st, the period actually ended quite warm, consisting of a stretch of above normal temperatures (the onlyof the month) with the highest being 58 degrees on the 20th.

The last days of the month tried to rally some warmer days too but they still failed to reach to normal levels.

The month was a cold and dry one overall.  The average temperature was 30.6 degrees which was the 15th coolest February for Springfield but other observation sites in Missouri ranked in the top ten coolest.

We had 2.3″ of snow officially in Springfield.

The Springfield National Weather Service has a collection of stats and reviews for the month here.