Keeping Track of Record Warm February Temperatures

An unusually warm February weather pattern brought several days of record breaking temperatures to central and southeast Illinois. The table below lists record highs and record warm lows, along with the observed high and low temperatures in 2017. Records set this year are highlighted in red.

Note the observation time for the 24 hour high and low temperature listed for each location. Readings for Charleston, Danville, Decatur, Effingham, Galesburg, Normal, and Urbana are provided by NWS Cooperative Weather Observers. The official measurement sites for Peoria and Springfield are at each airport. Lincoln's temperatures are measured at the NWS office.

Date		Charleston (7 PM)	Danville (5 PM)	Decatur (midnight)	Effingham (7 AM)	Galesburg (7 AM)	Lincoln (midnight)	Normal (5 AM)	Peoria (midnight)	Springfield (midnight)	Urbana (midnight)
2/17	Record 2017	72 / 56 69 / 44	71 / 51 68 / 36	61 / 48 66 / 42	68 / 49 60 / 20	60 / 43 57 / 27	63 / 47 72 / 32	64 / 45 52 / 22	64 / 47 72 / 37	68 / 52 73 / 45	69 / 47 70 / 37
2/18	Record 2017	68 / 48 67 / 47	67 / 49 66 / 42	70 / 43 64 / 45	70 / 44 69 / 42	63 / 43 70 / 38	63 / 39 67 / 40	63 / 44 72 / 43	63 / 42 68 / 38	65 / 43 68 / 43	65 / 42 70 / 40
2/19	Record 2017	72 / 53 66 / 48	70 / 54 67 / 46	66 / 48 65 / 45	70 / 45 65 / 49	63 / 52 66 / 33	71 / 46 69 / 36	70 / 47 64 / 38	71 / 50 69 / 34	70 / 54 71 / 41	68 / 46 68 / 44
2/20	Record 2017	73 / 48 72 / 45	70 / 48 69 / 39	70 / 47 70 / 47	68 / 54 64 / 45	64 / 41 69 / 38	70 / 46 74 / 45	67 / 45 68 / 38	68 / 46 74 / 48	74 / 46 76 / 51	71 / 45 71 / 43
2/21	Record 2017	71 / 52 65 / 53	67 / 50 66 / 52	68 / 48 61 / 52	73 / 52 73 / 46	68 / 40 71 / 48	69 / 45 65 / 51	69 / 46 73 / 45	69 / 46 68 / 53	69 / 48 64 / 53	67 / 47 62 / 48
2/22	Record 2017	71 / 52 71 / 48	71 / 54 68 / 44	72 / 51 66 / 46	74 / 55 62 / 45	61 / 45 65 / 47	69 / 45 67 / 42	70 / 53 67 / 44	71 / 51 66 / 48	71 / 53 64 / 45	69 / 49 70 / 43
2/23	Record 2017	69 / 52 71 / 52	67 / 51 67 / 42	73 / 53	68 / 52 74 / 46	65 / 44 67 / 41	68 / 50 58 / 39	66 / 52 67 / 44	64 / 49 53 / 43	70 / 50 60 / 42	65 / 50
2/24	Record 2017	75 / 54	71 / 54	75 / 52	75 / 54	68 / 47	74 / 53	71 / 51	71 / 54	78 / 56	70 / 51

Other February Records:

Monthly record high - Lincoln 74 in 1930 (74 on 2/20/17), Peoria 74 in 1932 (74 on 2/20/17), Springfield 78 in 1930
Monthly record warm low - Lincoln 56 in 1930, Peoria 54 in 1930, Springfield 57 in 2000
Most days with 60°+ highs - Lincoln 8 in 1976 (9 through 2/23/17), Peoria 6 in 2000 (8 through 2/23/17), Springfield 9 in 1976 (10 through 2/23/17)
Most days with 70º+ highs - Lincoln 4 in 1932 (2 through 2/23/17), Peoria 2 in 1930 & 1932 (2 through 2/23/17), Springfield 3 in 1976 (3 through 2/23/17)

Why have conditions been so warm? NWS Chicago provides the explanation in this graphic:

Links to nearby NWS office's webpages on the record February warmth:

NWS Chicago: Information Regarding the Current Record Warmth
NWS Quad Cities: New Feb. Rec High at Moline, IL & Additional Recent Records