CLEVELAND, Ohio — The official highs for the day are in, and both Cleveland-Hopkins and Akron-Canton broke the record for hottest day ever in February, by multiple degrees.

Cleveland could break record number of days with temperatures above 50 degrees in February

Cleveland reached 77 degrees late this afternoon, smashing the previous record of 74 degrees set back in 2000. Akron? That airport measured 74 degrees, 2 degrees above the previous record set the same year.

This unseasonably warm weather is due to a combination of a few weather patterns, enough to cause this record heat.

First, a passing warm front Friday morning already pushed in hot air from the west. Second, strong southerly winds is further dragging in more warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. Southerly winds can have a serious impact on weather here in Ohio because our terrain is so flat.

Previous coverage: Cleveland, Akron break records for hottest February temperature of all time

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Kelly Reardon is cleveland.com’s meteorologist. Please follow me on Facebook and Twitter @kreardon0818.

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