Mild Winter Translates Into Lower Fuel Oil Bills

WASHINGTON — Americans outside the Northeast got a break on their winter heating costs in February, as relatively mild weather lowered their utility bills, the government reported Friday.

Temperatures rose about 12 degrees to 15 degrees above normal in portions of North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to the monthly Climate Impact Assessment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And that warming extended out into much of the upper middle of the nation, with average temperatures 3 degrees or more above normal in an area extending from Washington south to Oklahoma and Arkansas and north to Ohio and Michigan, the agency said.

The result was a national warming of about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit and an average residential heating bill for the month of $101, or $8.49 below normal.