There is no doubt that this past week the ArkLaTex has experienced one of the most brutal weeks of winter weather in our lifetime and possibly ever. I have been forecasting weather in this area for nearly 30 years and have never seen the combination of snow, ice, and extreme cold that we have experienced this week.
A quick check of climate data shows that this February has likely been the snowiest on record for much of the ArkLaTex. It definitely was the snowiest in Shreveport. We received 5.4″ of snow during the February of 1940. So far this month, our two winter storms dropped 6.3″. The Texarkana snowfall total is not official, but an observation from the Texarkana area observed a record 8.8″ The previous Texarkana record was 7.0″ in 1966.
We have also experienced some bitterly cold temperatures. The coldest temperature in Shreveport dipped to 1 degree on February 16th. The National Weather Service indicates that this is the fourth coldest night on record in Shreveport. It was also the coldest temperature in nearly 90 years. The coldest temperature in Texarkana was -1. If you average all of the high and low temperatures for the month so far, this would rank as one of the coldest on record with an average temperature of 39.6 degrees. February of 1978 was the coldest on record with an average of 38.1 degrees. This month’s average temperature will probably go up by the time this month concludes. Fortunately, it appears that we will see above-average temperatures for most of the rest of the month.
