Cold February wraps a frigid Illinois winter

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — A cold, snowy February brought an equally frigid winter to — officially, anyway — an end.

The Illinois State Water survey says the average statewide temperature for the month was 25.1 degrees. That’s 5.1 degrees colder than normal.

And snowfall was above average for the month, too. Snowfall totals ranged from 6 inches in southern Illinois to more than 18 in the Quad Cities and Chicago areas.

But State Climatologist Jim Angel says the winter that just ended was only the 19th coldest on record.

He says winters in the late 1970s were much colder. The average statewide temperature in the 1977-78 winter and the one that followed were both around 19 degrees.

Snowfall totals around the state this winter ranged from 45 inches in northeast Illinois to about 15 inches in the south.