By Maggie Downs
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kevin Spanier, 17, of Florence, casts a shadow on the wall of a "bowl" as he takes advantage of relatively warm weather Wednesday to ride his bike at the Florence Skatepark. The Cincinnati Enquirer/PATRICK REDDY

February is the month stores start hawking the bikinis and beachwear.

Now we have the weather to go with it. Almost.

Wednesday's temperatures hit a high of 45 degrees. Today will be even warmer, with highs in the lower 50s. And Friday is expected to be positively tropic - for a Midwestern winter, anyway - with a high around 60.

"It's a little abnormal for this time of year, but it's happened before," said Myron Padgett with the National Weather Service.

Temperatures for this time of year are typically in the 40s. But those 10 degrees can seem like the difference between a freezer and a sauna after a long winter.

"We've had a lot of highs in the 30s, which is below normal, so the 50s will seem like spring," Padgett said.

Tristaters are expected to take advantage by heading outside.

"I think people are really going to pop out the next couple of days," said Ralph Landrum, manager of Devou Park Golf Course in Covington. "They're really chomping at the bit to get out of the house and do something."

He expects about 150 people to putter around the course today. And that will be a welcome change from what he has been seeing. "Tuesday was the first time in six weeks we had somebody out here," Landrum said.

One place is holding onto the snow, though. At Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg, the snow is 5, 10, even 20 feet deep in some places.

Everything does not melt as soon as the sun hits it.

"Generally, we end up with fewer people on warm days, because the perception of weather actually hurts us more than the weather itself," said Chip Perfect, one of the owners. "Many people assume it gets up to 50 or 60 degrees and the snow disappears."

A cold front on Friday night should bring us back into the 40s.

"And then it's back to the more seasonal weather," Padgett said.

E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com