What winter? Columbus logs record warmth

By Jennifer Smola, The Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS – Columbus logged its 12th 60-degree day of 2017 on Tuesday, breaking its record for the most 60-degree days during January and February, according to the National Weather Service.

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If you’ve been taking these warm winter days for granted, the new record is a reminder that this many warm, sunny days this early in the year don’t come around very often.

When Columbus set its previous record of 11 60-degree days in January and February, Benjamin Harrison was president, a gallon of milk was 14 cents and the Ohio State Buckeyes had yet to play their first football game. The year was 1890.


This year, there were six days in January that reached 60 degrees, and there already have been six in February, including Tuesday, said meteorologist Myron Padgett with the National Weather Service in Wilmington. The temperature in Columbus climbed as high as 69 degrees as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, just shy of the record 71 degrees set in 1997.

If the sunshine, comfortable breeze and jacketless afternoons have gone to your head, the Weather Service is here to remind you: This is not normal.

“By this date in February, normal would be low 40s,” Padgett said.

Central Ohioans seem to be taking advantage of the unseasonably warm days to get outside. The Columbus Zoo & Aquarium broke a record of its own when it welcomed 63,910 visitors on Monday, when admission was free for Presidents Day. Cars flooding into the zoo caused traffic jams for hours.

With high temperatures forecast in the 60s through the rest of the work week, Columbus is poised to put some distance between that 1890 record and the one it just set.

There also is a chance that Thursday temperatures could break the record high of 66 degrees, set in 1985, Padgett said, and central Ohio could see more atypical weather before the weekend, as thunderstorms are possible Friday evening.