Wednesday marked the first day of spring closing the door on an unseasonably warm winter.

A developing El Niño made for above average rainfall and temperatures, National Weather Service Meteorologist Roger Erickson said. El Niño occurs when temperatures are running above normal near the equator and the Pacific Ocean. Erickson said the phenomenon is recognized when the temperature is a half degree Celsius warmer for three consecutive months, which was met in February and is still ongoing.

“As we transition to spring, spring tends to be wetter than normal for El Niño,” he said. “The good news is that later in the summer, when it comes to hurricanes, there are usually fewer storms in general.”

Erickson said the Jetstream is typically stronger during El Niño, which makes it more difficult for tropical systems to organize.

“It can still happen,” he said. “There is just less of them.”

Erickson said the forecast calls for the El Niño to continue into the summer.

The meteorologist said December, January and February were all warmer and wetter than average:

December — 56.7 degrees (+2), 7.96 inches of rain (+2.6)

January — 53.7 degrees (+1), 6.85 inches of rain (+1.5)

February — 61.2 degrees (+5.3), 1.67 inches of rain (-1.9)

“We didn’t get too many freezes this past winter,” Erickson said. “Sometimes we’ll get five, six days of them. We didn’t get many. Up north in the Woodville area got some, but the Beaumont/ Port Arthur area didn’t get anything.”

Erickson said clouds coming up from the south allowed for a warmer winter but will likely cause temperatures to be below average for the spring.

“In March, April and May, you typically start to get around the 80s,” he said. “The wetter part is still predominant. The weather conditions like the cloud coverage keep the temperatures down a little bit.”