Throwback Thursday: When February 19 Was Warm

Sunny day in Boston by Oinonio on Flickr

With reports of bitterly cold temperatures followed by another snowstorm this weekend, we’re in the stretch of a particularly brutal winter when it seems like we may never reach the other side. Actually, though, Mother Nature does give breaks. The warmest February 19 on record, for instance, came in 1961, when the temperature reached 65 degrees. Let’s close our eyes and throw it back to February 19, 1961, shall we?

There was snow on the ground that day, too. Not nearly as much as there is today, but there was snow. And then, a southwest wind struck up and blew in a front of warm air that broke records. “It Was Spring for a Day,” sighed a Boston Globe headline the next day. The paper reported:

“The record was broken. Mounds of snow melted into puddles and all New England basked in the spring-like sun.”

Sounds, well… pretty nice. It couldn’t last, of course. The next day, temperatures returned to the high 30s. But this kind of warm spell isn’t totally unheard of around this time of year. The warmest February day on record in Boston, for instance, came February 24, 1985, when the thermostat reached 70 degrees.

So sure, it seems like the city of Boston will never be given a rest from its woes. It will snow and snow until eventually the city is buried, until our houses become like a lost city to be excavated by Martian archaeologists in 3015. But maybe, if we’re lucky, one of these days, Boston will be given a break before being plunged back into eternal winter.