Good riddance to February, the shortest month that this year often seemed liked the longest.

Heading into the weekend, the month was expected to easily set a record as the coldest since such measurements began, finishing with an average temperature about 1 degree below the old record of 16.5 degrees set in February 1934, as measured in Hartford, which has records dating back 110 years. In meteorological terms, 1 degree is a landslide.

That will come as no surprise to those who have spent the last month traversing snow piles and avoiding ice patches, with single-digit temperatures - above and below zero - greeting the commute to work or school most mornings, often made more miserable by a biting wind.

Even winter lovers have had their fill. One can love doughnuts, too, but after a half-dozen, resentment sets in.

The winter sneaked up on us, with little snow and only moderate cold through December and most of January. But when it decided to hit, it hit hard, arriving in full gale with the Blizzard of 2015 on January 26 and 27. After the snow made its arrival, measured in feet, it decided to stick around for all of February. Several subsequent moderate to heavy snowfalls added to the deepening snowpack and growing piles.

Southeastern Connecticut is unaccustomed to such an experience. Yes, cold and snow are part of winter, but often interspersed with breaks and melts that allow an occasional glimpse at green to sooth dispositions and offer hope for spring. Such was not the case this February.

We have had enough. It is March. The days are lengthening. Next Sunday we "spring forward" with sunset moving to almost 7 p.m. Winter long ago wore out its welcome, yet the Climate Prediction Center projects below-average temperatures at least through mid-March.

Yet winter cannot win; its icy grasp will loosen, though its claws appear to have dug in deep this year.

Global warming deniers are having a good laugh, seeing this as proof it ain't so. But the evidence says otherwise. The Northeast U.S. winter is the exception to a warming world. Some scientists speculate climate change may be at work, with the Jet Stream disrupted, allowing an unusual amount of cold to flow into the eastern United States.

It will be a good argument to have sitting at the beach this summer.