The Big Freeze: February 2015 Winter Chill by the Numbers

February 2015 was brutal. The bone-numbing, punishing cold shattered records in the Northeast, making February the coldest month for some cities since reliable records were first kept.

Some places recorded the most days of zero or below temperatures. Adding to the misery were multiple winter storms that buried Boston under piles of snow.

While the first day of March was blustery across the Northeast, the end is in sight.

Weather Services International predicted that March, April and May should all be warmer than normal in the Northeast.

Take a look at the frigid February by the numbers:

6.2 degrees: The average temperature in Bangor, Maine, according to the National Weather Service. That's about 15 degrees below normal and easily beats the old record of 8.4 degrees, from January 1994. A February record low of 13.8 degrees was also set in Portland, Maine.

9.0 degrees: The average temperature in Syracuse, New York, which shattered by 3 degrees the old record set in February 1934. That makes February 2015 the coldest month ever for Syracuse.

10.9 degrees: The average temperature in Buffalo, New York, beating the 1934 record of 11.4, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University.

15.7 degrees: The average temperature in February in Hartford, Connecticut,  according to First Alert Meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan. That's a degree below the current record of 16.5 degrees, which was set in February 1934. The month is also expected to break the 2004 record in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which stands at 21.9 degrees. The average temperature in the Bridgeport area in February was 19.7 degrees.

18.8 degrees: The average temperature in Boston, making February the second-coldest month on record. The city spent over 500 hours without breaking 32 degrees.

23.9 degrees: The average temperature in New York City, making the month the coldest February in more than 80 years and the third coldest since 1869. The coldest February ever recorded in the city was in 1934, when the average temperature in Central Park was 19.9 degrees. February of 1885 comes in second.

4 below zero: The temperature dipped down to 4 below zero at Dulles International Airport in Virginia,  on Feb. 24, shattering the previous record of 14 degrees. That record was set in 1967. The entire region ran close to 10 degrees below normal for the month.

102 inches: The amount of snow Boston received this winter, most of it in February. It’s just 5.6 inches shy of the snowiest winter on record, according to the National Weather Service.

150: The number of structures in Massachusetts where roofs have collapsed because of the snow loads this winter, according to state officials, The Associated Press reported. On Sunday, a youth hockey team escaped without injury when part of a snow-weighted roof at a Canton, Massachusetts, skating rink collapsed.
 

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