CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Record-breaking weather will be settling back to more seasonable conditions to end February, according to the National Weather Service.
More than a half dozen high temperature records were set Friday.
It was 80 degrees in Charleston breaking the previous high of 76 set in 1925. The warm day also tied the warmest day ever recorded in the month of February in the Capital City. Record highs were also set in Morgantown, 77; Parkersburg, 78; Elkins, 76; Wheeling, 76; Huntington, 80, and Beckley, 73.
The weather has some considering what to do in the yard, but Putnam County WVU Extension Agent Scott Byars is warning people to not get too ambitious with their outdoor projects yet.
“It’s real early. The best thing for anyone to do is get out and enjoy and soil up that sunshine and do some cleaning,” Byars said. “Clean up the garden of debris or the lawn. Getting things prepared and ready.”
It’s too early to fertilize laws, since any gains made by that will probably be knocked down by an almost certain frost in the weeks ahead, Byars said. He suggested instead of starting to mow, get the lawnmower ready for the year with an oil change, blade sharpening, and be ready when spring does finally arrive.
He said seeding the lawn, however, might be a good move.
“This is the second best time of the year to be putting down grass seed,” Byars said. “You could go in and do some top seeding with grass seed if you have some bare spots in the lawn.”
As for flower beds, he suggested planning and preparation.
“Make some plans of where you might need to divide some of the perennials in the bed,” he said. “If you can see some of them budding up now, it might be a good time to divide them.”
Byars said working in the vegetable garden might be premature at this point except in the most extreme cases.
“You could be putting out onion sets or maybe pre-sprouting on seed potatoes,” he said. “When you’re in February, we’re still looking at really significant frost and if you get anything out too early, you’re probably going to be looking at a great deal of covering and that may be more than most gardeners are prepared to do.”
Chris Lawrence also contributed to this story.