‘Just Nice Winter Weather’

    “At last we have had winter,” Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer, wrote in his February report from Bridgehampton. “No record-breaking snowfall, no extra-thick ice on the ponds, never a squall of record-breaking wind speed, just nice winter weather.”

    But it’s not over yet, he reminded people late last week. “Often with March there is a large snowstorm, with northwest 50-mile-per-hour winds.” By the time the paper hits the newsstand that may already have come to pass . . . or not.

    February’s warmest day, according to Mr. Hendrickson, was the 18th, when it was 48 degrees, and it was in the 40s on 10 days last month. “I believe this is the warmest February month I have ever recorded since I started the U.S. Weather Station here on the farm on April 1, 1931.”

    The coolest night last month was Feb. 10, when it was just 10 degrees. There was measurable precipitation on eight days, for a total of 2.7 inches. That was despite the 18 inches of snow that February brought, the heaviest — 12 inches — coming on Feb. 8. Snow depths are not equal to rain depths, so the total precipitation can be quite a bit less than the snowfall measured in inches.

    “As you know we are in a warming cycle,” Mr. Hendrickson wrote. “How long will this warmer pattern last? It may be a 10 to 20-year cycle, or a many number of years. That is a good reason to keep accurate records.”