AREA HAVING WARM WINTER, RECORDS SHOW

The adage about Missouri weather - if you don't like the weather right now, wait a few hours and it'll change - was certainly true over the weekend.

The low for the month of January, 15 degrees, occurred at the airport on Saturday. Thirty-five hours later, the high for the month, and a new record high for Jan. 31, was set Sunday afternoon when the thermometer reached 66 degrees. That broke the previous record of 65 degrees, set in 1989.

The balmy, spring-like temperatures on Sunday were more typical of early March than the last days of January, which is traditionally the coldest month of the year in Cape Girardeau, according to Al Robertson, climatologist and professor of earth science at Southeast Missouri State University.

Cape Girardeau is currently experiencing its warmest winter in 47 years, Robertson said.

He said the average temperature for January was 35.6 degrees, up nearly 3 (2.9) degrees from the 48-year, long-term average. "During each of the three, 10-day periods of January, the average was at, or above the long-term average," Robertson said.

The 10-day averages:

Jan. 1-10, 34.5 degrees, up 1.8 degrees from the long-term of 32.7 degrees.

Jan. 11-20, 33 degrees, up .6 of a degree from the long-term of 32.4 degrees.

Jan. 21-31, 39 degrees, up 5.7 degrees from the long-term average of 33.3 degrees. During the month, there were four days when the daily high was in the 60s, and only three days when the morning low was below 20 degrees.

"These averages are noteworthy when you realize they occurred during a time of the year when temperatures are normally at their coldest in Cape Girardeau," Robertson added.

He said the average daily high last month was 43.4 degrees, compared to the long-term of 41.3 degrees. The average daily low was 27.7 degrees, compared to the long-term average of 23.5 degrees.

Precipitation got off to a good start during the first month of 1993. The airport measured 5.21 inches of precipitation, including .4 of an inch of snow that fell on Jan. 18. That's up 1.69 inches over the long-term monthly average of 3.52 inches.

Robertson said the average temperature for the first 60 days of the three-month winter, (December through February) is running about one degree above the long-term average.

Will history repeat itself? The National Weather Service's 30-day outlook for Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois indicates temperatures and precipitation may average above long-term normals this month.

That outlook may differ from the traditional Groundhog Day forecast, which calls for six more weeks of winter weather if the groundhog sees his shadow today.