INLAND EMPIRE – (INT) – Weather for the opening of March has featured a flip-flop.

It turns out that February’s persistent warm weather set records. In Riverside, afternoons averaged 10-degrees above normal. It was the warmest February since 1968.

February also helped to overturn the 4-month winter outlook issued by NOAA last October. Temperatures were predicted to be warmer than usual, but rainfall came up short.

NOAA had predicted a 2-in-3 chance of normal or above-normal rainfall. But, it didn’t happen.

Forecaster Matt Shameson in Riverside said the predicted weak-to-moderate El Nino “just went away” leaving neutral conditions in the Pacific Ocean.

Throughout the West, warm February temperature records were set. That’s in sharp contrast to the bitter winter that still grips the eastern two-thirds of the nation.

Story Date: March 5, 2015