Freaky February helps smash records for heat — and cold

John Bacon | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Is this crazy winter almost over? USA TODAY's weather reporter Doyle Rice talks about the craziest winter now almost over or is it?

The winter of 2014-15 has been so warm across a wide swath of the West that more than 20 cities set records for the warmest meteorological winter, which runs from Dec. 1 to the end of February, the Weather Channel reports.

Most folks shivering in the Northeast really don't want to hear about it.

San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas were among cities blessed with record-balmy winters. But a couple thousand miles away, February brought a snow record for Boston's and record cold for Cleveland, Buffalo, Syracuse, N.Y.; Harrisburg, Pa., and several other cities. Chicago tied its February cold record.

"That sharp contrast isn't surprising," AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Kines told USA TODAY. "That's how the atmosphere and Mother Nature work."

Everything is in balance, Kines said. The atmosphere can't be cold or warm everywhere. If you don't like where the cold was this winter, blame the jet stream. And the jet stream in recent weeks has been stuck far to the north in the West — even Alaska has had a warm winter.

But it has dipped far to the south in the East, allowing a wave of cold air to remain locked across much of the region. The result: Ice storms in Dallas and Atlanta.

"The jet stream doesn't just sweep weather across the country, it separates the cold and the warm," Kines said.

Still, the nasty February was not enough to rattle record books in the East, Weather Channel senior digital meteorologist Nick Wiltgen says.

"In case you're wondering, few if any cities in the East will have their coldest winters on record despite a series of high-profile blizzards and record cold waves — mainly because December was relatively mild," Wiltgen says.