WINTER OF '90-91 WILL GO DOWN AS WARM AND WET IN CAPE AREA

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The winter of 1990-91 will go down in the record books as a wet and warm one, said Dr. Al Robertson, professor of earth science at Southeast Missouri State University.

Meanwhile, the 30-day weather outlook for March calls for cooler-than-normal temperatures and near normal amounts of precipitation.

The 90-day long-range outlook for the area indicates average temperatures and precipitation through the end of May.

Although winter officially ends March 20, when the spring solstice occurs, the National Weather Service, for statistical purposes, counts the three-month period of December, January and February as winter months.

Robertson said the winter of 1990-91 was the ninth warmest in 46 years, and the eighth wettest in 78 years in Cape Girardeau. He explained precipitation records for Cape Girardeau go back further than temperature records.

According to Robertson, the average temperature for the winter of 1990-91 was 38.6 degrees compared to the three-month, long-term average of 35.9 degrees.

"It was a relatively mild winter," said Robertson, "the warmest winter we've had in Cape Girardeau since the winter of 1982-83, when the average was 39.5 degrees."

Robertson said the warmest winter in 46 years here was in 1949-50, with an average temperature of 40.9 degrees.

In contrast, the coldest winter in Cape Girardeau occurred in 1977-78, with an average temperature of 26.9 degrees.

The actual and long-term temperature averages for the individual winter months are:

December, actual, 37.9 degrees; long-term, 36.9 degrees.

January, actual, 32 degrees; long-term, 33 degrees.

February, actual, 41.2 degrees; long-term, 37.4 degrees.

Robertson said the coldest temperature reading this winter was 8 degrees on the morning of Dec. 24. During the five-day period of Dec. 22-26, the morning lows, respectively for each day, were 11, 10, 8, 14, and 18 degrees.

The warmest temperature reading this winter was on Dec. 10, when it reached 66 degrees.

Total precipitation during the winter months amounted to 15.41 inches compared to the long-term average of 10.43 inches. "Interestingly, the past three winters ('88-89, '89-90 and '90-91) have been a-third wetter than normal," Robertson added.

The wettest winter in 78 years in Cape Girardeau was in 1949-50, with 26.12 inches of precipitation. Over half of that fell in January 1950, 15.94 inches, Robertson said.

The driest winter during the same time period was in 1942-43, when only 2.78 inches of precipitation was measured at Cape Girardeau.

Robertson said winter began with almost spring-like temperatures during the first half of December. But the mercury plunged during the final third of the month, although it did recover to reach 62 degrees on Dec. 29, before falling back to the 20s and 30s for afternoon highs.

January temperatures were about average for the entire month. Daily highs were generally in the upper 20s, 30s, and low 40s. The low for the month was 14 degrees.

Robertson said February started out warm, cooled toward the middle, and got colder at the end of the month, except for the final day, Feb. 28, when the high reached 64 degrees.

The 10-day February temperature averages:

Feb. 1-10, 45 degrees, compared to the long-term average of 33.7 degrees, up 11.3 degrees.

Feb. 11-20, 39.5 degrees, compared to the long-term 38.3 degrees, up 1.2 degrees.

Feb. 21-28, 39.9 degrees, compared to the long-term 40.8 degrees, down 0.9 of a degree.

There were six days when the high was 60 or above. The coldest reading in February was 13 degrees, on Feb. 15.

Precipitation last month amounted to 2.69 inches, compared to the long-term average of 2.84 inches.

The rainiest day of the month was on Feb. 13, with 1.07 inches of rain that fell during a severe thunderstorm. It was the first outbreak of severe weather in the area for the new year.

The same storm system also spawned a tornado that damaged some houses and buildings in Delta and west of Chaffee, and dropped up to golf ball-sized hail in the Kelso-Scott City area.

Only 0.2 of an inch of snow fell in February, and that came on Feb. 25, the anniversary of the blizzard of 1979, which dumped 24 inches of snow on Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area.

The long-term average temperature for March is 46.8 degrees. Average precipitation is 4.41 inches. Robertson pointed out March, April and May are traditionally the wettest months of the year in Cape Girardeau.