February Stats At ORD And Various Indices

[Chicago WX]

I was bored and decided to throw this together. I was curious if there was any correlations that are relevant for February at ORD...with respect to things such as ENSO, AO, NAO, and PNA. Not sure I really found anything, and I may have wasted my time in the end...alas here is the data. I started with February 1980, so the sample size is relatively small...but consistent to one site (O'Hare Airport).

First table is the stats for all Februaries since 1980 at ORD. Average temperatures (TEMP), min temperatures of 0 or below (MIN 0<), precipitation (PREC), snowfall (SNOW), largest daily snow (LDS)...averages from 1980 to 2011 highlighted in yellow at the bottom...and then the indices that are self explanatory. The last four columns (indices) have data taken directly from the Climate Prediction Center.

Individual indice results below. For ENSO this is how I broke down the columns: N (0.49 to -0.49), C- (-0.50 to 0.99), C (-1.0 to -1.49), C+ (-1.50 or cooler). The same is true for the "W" columns. C indicates Nina, and W indicates Nino.

For the AO, NAO, and PNA indices, here are the ranges: N (0.50 to -0.50), -.5-1 (-0.51 to -1.0), -1-1.5 (-1.01 to -1.5), -1.5> (-1.51 or greater). Again the same is true on the flip side.

[beavis1729]

Thanks Tim...great post. It's amazing how cold February 1989 was, even with a huge +NAO and +AO. Very interesting.

The Utah State site should have data back to 1959 at ORD if you're interested.

Of course ORD only became the "official" site in 1980...but the data is still there.

[Chicago WX]

Thanks Tim...great post. It's amazing how cold February 1989 was, even with a huge +NAO and +AO. Very interesting.

The Utah State site should have data back to 1959 at ORD if you're interested.

Of course ORD only became the "official" site in 1980...but the data is still there.

Yeah I have the data for ORD going back to 1958. I was just lazy and only did it starting with 1980.

I'll probably fill in the rest of the years at some point in the near future.