National Climate Report - February 2014
Winter Cold: Historical Perspective

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« National Climate Report - February 2014

• 2014 Temperature Anomalies
• Precipitation Anomalies
• Winter Cold: Historical Perspective
• Winter Snowfall Departure from Average
• Climate Dataset Transition
• Great Lakes Ice
• Daily Temperature Extremes
• Winter Divisional Trends

The winter of 2013/14 featured several intense cold air outbreaks, with relatively mild conditions in the interim. Most of the coldest air, relative to normal, was confined to the eastern half of the contiguous United States, while the western CONUS and Alaska were persistently warm. The graphics in the following table depict two ways of looking at these cold-versus-warm scenarios.

The first link for each station shows the day-by-day temperature for the season, in a bar format. Each day's high temperature and low temperature define the size and placement of that day's bar. The 1981-2010 normal values, taken from official Normals data, is displayed as a backdrop for context.

The second link for each station shows how the coldest air of Winter 2013-14 compares with cold outbreaks from the station's deeper history, by comparing the number of days with temperatures as cold or colder than the threshold occurred each year. The threshold was derived objectively by taking the coldest observation of the 2013-14 period and rounding up to the next warmest 5°F value.