The groundhog predicted an early spring this year, but who said anything about springtime weather barely a week after Groundhog Day?
After a record-low December and a snowy January, many in the Tennessee Valley are scratching their heads over the balmy February, featuring temperatures that lingered in the 60s and even reached into the 70s.
Autum Bonner and Chad McCamish wore T-shirts and shorts Sunday to walk their dogs in 70-degree weather on the Walnut Street Bridge.
“We would never usually do this at this time of year,” Bonner said. “We’d be going to a movie. We’d be just hanging out inside.”
Meteorologists attribute the previous months’ unusually cold temperatures to upper-level jet streams, which steered wintry systems Chattanooga’s way.