February in Kalispell was warmer than normal with scant snowfall that didn’t stick around, continuing a trend that has made this winter one of the warmest on record for the city.

According to Bob Nester, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Missoula, December through February the average temperature in Kalispell was 30 degrees, about 6 degrees above normal.

“That’s pretty significant,” Nester said, describing the three-month period as “the heart of winter.”

The three-month stretch was the third-warmest on record and the warmest in the last 28 years for Kalispell, Nester said. The warmest winter on record was in 1952-53 when the average temperature was 31.4.

Nester noted that the arctic blasts that plagued the region last winter never materialized.

“Most of the deep, cold arctic air masses stayed to the east,” he said.

According to data from the National Weather Service in Missoula, the mean temperature for February in Kalispell was about 3 degrees higher than normal. This was likely due to a lack of consistent snow cover, which can lead to warmer nights, the Weather Service explained.

There were no nights below zero. The coldest temperature came Feb. 4 and Feb. 9 when it bottomed out at 9 degrees.

The monthly high was 56 on Friday, Feb. 28, one of three days in the month to crack the 50-degree mark.

Kalispell’s average temperature in January was 5 degrees above normal.

Snowfall this winter has been lacking, as well.

Kalispell ended February with just 6.89 inches of total snowfall, below the monthly average of 8.4 inches. It never snowed more than 2 inches in a single 24-hour period, and much of the snow that did fall in town quickly melted. The snow depth maxed out at 3 inches on Feb. 7 and was gone two weeks later.

Season to date, Kalispell has tallied 34.3 inches of snow. The average is about 45 inches.

Northern parts of the valley have seen more snow, and the snowpack continues to linger in places like Whitefish and Columbia Falls. Season snowfall in West Glacier is slightly below normal, with 86.6 inches tallied so far. The normal season-to-date snowfall is 93.2.

Despite low snow totals in the valley, Northwest Montana’s mountain snowpack is trending above average. The Flathead River Basin snowpack is 120 percent of normal, according to Natural Resources Conservation Services. The Kootenai Basin is 104 percent of normal.

Noisy Basin in the Swan Mountains has a snow depth of 110 inches, which is holding a snow-water equivalent of 41.4 inches. Flattop Mountain in Glacier National Park has 123 inches of snow on the ground, which is holding 46 inches of snow-water equivalent. It’s a similar situation on Big Mountain, with 10.5 feet of snow at the summit.

“Hopefully, the next four weeks we will continue to get mountain snow to keep that up,” Nester said.

The 30-day forecast shows average temperatures and average precipitation for most on the Northern Rockies.

March 1 marked the beginning of meteorological spring, which according to AccuWeather, is based on annual temperature trends and the Gregorian calendar. It runs through May 31. The spring equinox is March 19 this year, the earliest in 124 years. Days will continue to grow longer after the equinox until the summer solstice occurs on June 20.