The long-range forecast for February in Washington has the second month of the year starting out with temperatures below freezing and a chance for snow.

State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says the overall National Weather Service outlook is for near to below normal temperatures to begin February, “Although the same outlook was generally in place last year and we actually had a very similar global weather pattern with a so called La Nina out in the Pacific. Which usually means colder than normal weather for areas just to the north of Iowa and further north, and warmer than normal winter weather for areas just to the south of Iowa and points further south. And Iowa typically would see temperatures not necessarily near normal, but really no tendency one way or the other with La Nina, but last winter obviously an extremely mild February, one of the warmest on record.”

Last February, Washington had four days with record high temperatures set including 76 degrees on February 23rd, the normal for that day is 38 degrees. Listen to KCII for weather updates.