You're not alone if you felt that spring started sometime in February.

Despite a couple of juicy storms last month and the fact that spring officially starts March 20, it has been a winter of strangely sultry beach weather.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center went ahead and made it official this week:
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California had its hottest winter ever recorded. The center says:

California had its warmest winter on record, while Arizona had its fourth warmest. The California winter temperature was 48.0°F, 4.4°F above the 20th century average, far exceeding the previous record, set in 1980/81, by 0.8°F.

The NOAA folks say it was the third driest winter on record for the state. Los Angeles experienced its driest calendar year ever in 2013, too.

See also: Driest Year Ever For L.A.

The federal weather experts call our dryness a “D4” exceptional drought.

Credit: NOAA

Credit: NOAA

See also: Governor Brown Wants to Give Our Water to Drought-Stricken NorCal?

Record high temperatures were seen throughout the state in February, the center says:

In southeastern California, several locations logged their highest February temperatures on record. Bishop hit 81 F (27.2 C) on 13th to tie February 27, 1986 for the highest February temperature in a 120-year record. Temperatures soared to 84 F (28.9 C) in Palmdale on both the 13th and 14th, the highest February temperature recorded since records began there in 1934. Fresno recorded its warmest February in a 67-year record with an average 56.8 F (13.8 C).

The caveat: It might rain next week. The key word there being “might.”

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