It was one of the warmest February's one record. Here is a great summary by the National Weather Service in Wilmington, OH.
https://www.weather.gov/media/iln/climate_summary/ClimateReport_February2017.pdf
Further, for the period of January and February combined, many reporting stations in Ohio had the most number of 60+ days ever recorded.
Columbus 60+ degree days Jan/Feb (rank, year, #60+degree days, missing days)
|
1 |
2017-02-28 |
16 |
0 |
|
2 |
1890-02-28 |
11 |
0 |
|
3 |
1932-02-29 |
10 |
0 |
|
- |
1880-02-29 |
10 |
0 |
Cincinnati 60+ degree days Jan/Feb (rank, year, #60+degree days, missing days)
|
1 |
2017-02-28 |
19 |
0 |
|
2 |
1890-02-28 |
17 |
0 |
|
3 |
1880-02-29 |
15 |
0 |
Dayton 60+ degree days Jan/Feb (rank, year, #60+degree days, missing days)
1 2017-02-28 13 0
2 1930-02-28 9 0
3 1976-02-29 8 0
- 1950-02-28 8 0
- 1932-02-29 8 0
- 1916-02-29 8 0
The warm-up has led to green-up conditions running about 3 weeks ahead of schedule in Ohio.
This is the current look at USGS green-up conditions...
https://www.usanpn.org/data/spring
The outlook for March calls for near to slightly warmer than normal temperatures. We will not see the record warmth in March we saw in February. Precipitation will be near or slightly above normal.
The outlook for April and May calls for a turn fr4om near normal temperatures in April to warmer and slightly drier than normal conditions by late April into May.
The summer outlook continues to call for a warmer than normal period with rainfall at or below normal.
The freeze outlook continues to suggest a near normal or slightly later than normal last freeze based on current climate trends. Normal last freeze is generally between April 10 to 20 for much of the state. However, with early green-up and budding there is an elevated risk to fruit trees and other sensitive crops this spring as even a normal last freeze means things will be exposed.