MANSFIELD, Ohio — Saturday will go down in Mansfield’s history books as the warmest day in February with temperatures reaching 66 degrees.
According to Zach Sefcovic, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Saturday tied a record set in 1930.
“For Mansfield, the average temperature was 56 degrees,” Sefcovic said. “Other parts of the state reached the lower 70s and several other climate sites were also in the mid to upper 60s. So it was anywhere from 64 to 74 (degrees) in the state.”
He attributed the warm weather to El Niño; a climatological term used to describe a typically warmer and drier climate. And so far during Mansfield’s winter, warm and dry seems accurate.
“December was one of the warmest Decembers in recorded history and we’ve been breaking records throughout February,” Sefcovic said.
He said a warm-weather record was broken on Feb. 3, too.
“It’s certainly warmer. So far for the month (February), we are 1.8 degrees above the average in Mansfield,” he said.
But unfortunately, we won’t see more of the same in the coming days, according to NWS forecasts. Sefcovic said the warm weather pattern is changing Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Starting Wednesday night, temperatures will dip to freezing and rain will turn to snow. Thursday has a 90 percent chance of snow through the day and night. Friday skies will clear, but the temperature will dip into the 20s.
Saturday and Sunday temperatures are expected to be within the 30s and lower 40s.
“It’s still winter in Northern Ohio,” Sefcovic said. “We’re still going to have bursts of colder air here and there.”
But when he looked at the extended forecast for March, April and May, he expects more of the same abnormally warm and dry climate for Mansfield.
“The area will be above average when it comes to temperature and slightly below average when it comes to precipitation — which is what we’ve been seeing for the last couple months,” he said.
