How Does Winter's Cold Translate To Spring?

This winter will be one of the coldest on record for Rockford, but will it translate into a cold spring? Let's take a look back at some historically cold Stateline winters to see if we can find some answers.

Oddly enough, the three coldest winters in Rockford history were back-to-back-to-back in the late 1970s. As of Monday, Feb. 24th, this winter was ranked as the 4th coldest, but with exceptionally cold temperatures expected the rest of the week, this winter is expected to end up ranking in the top three once meteorological spring starts up on Saturday.

So what happened back in the 1970s once spring rolled around? The results are mixed. Two of those springs kept with the trend of lower than average temperatures. The spring of 1977, however, saw a complete turnaround and ended up being the second warmest spring in Rockford history.

Looking at the rest of the top ten coldest winters for Rockford and their transitions to spring doesn't help, either. Most of the coldest winters we've seen have been followed be a fairly "average" spring where temps were only a degree or so off the average.

Rockford Spring Temps After Cold Winters

For now, the only thing we can say with some certainty is that cooler temperatures will likely stick around for the first half of March. And if history is an indicator, it will be anyone's guess after that. -BA