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February arrives tomorrow. Here is a look at the month’s average climatology stats in our part of the Tennessee Valley

We turn the page on January and head into a new month tomorrow (Saturday). That means it’s time to look at the monthly climatology stats to get an idea of what is considered “average” in our part of the Tennessee Valley. As we always explain, the NWS official climate reporting station for our viewing area is located at the Northwest Alabama Regional Airport in Muscle Shoals.

As you would expect, February is still a somewhat chilly month here across the Tennessee Valley, but the temperatures do start trending up a bit as we are getting into the latter part of winter. The average daytime high for the month overall is 56.7 degrees, but this starts down at 54 at the beginning of the month and makes it all the way to 60 as we round out February. By the same token, our average low temperature for the month is 36.7 degrees, but that’s as low as 34 at the start of February and knocking on the door of 40 at 39 as we end the month. Temperature-wise, it can be a volatile month though. Muscle Shoals’ record high for the month of February is 80 degrees, set back in 2012. And by the same token, it can get really cold. The location’s record February monthly low was -13, set back in 1905.

Being in late winter in the Tennessee Valley means the storm track is often active during the month, bringing anything from heavy rain and flooding to severe storms and tornadoes to winter storms with snow and ice. February is a somewhat wet month on average, with us normally seeing around 4.79″ of rainfall as a monthly average. We can certainly see double digit rainfall with flooding events though! By the same token, the February record snow for the Muscle Shoals climate reporting site is 12 inches from back in 1910, and there have been plenty of other times when other communities in the viewing area overall have seen that much snow or a little more during various winter storms in February over the years. We are also known for the occasional significant ice storm during the month of February as well.

As mentioned above, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are sometimes a concern here in the month of February. Tornado “season” in our area runs from November through May, and although it’s usually not quite as hyperactive as the spring months or November into December, the month of February has its fair share of activity as well. On occasion, that can include tornado outbreaks with large, long-track type tornadoes that are just as violent as the ones we sometimes see in March and April. The “Super Tuesday” 2008 tornado outbreak is one such prime example. That outbreak actually brought the strongest February tornadoes on record in our 14-county viewing area, with an EF4 tornado hitting northern Hardin County, TN during the evening of February 5th and another EF4 tornado hitting eastern Lawrence County, AL later that overnight during the predawn hours of February 6th.

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Fred Gossage
Chief Meteorologist of the Tennessee Valley Weather Team