What a month, we started off average enough with New Year's day delivering a 29.3° low on its way up to a rather typical 45.7°. The 2nd was pretty average as well with a chilly but seasonal 28 in the morning and rather January-like 41.7° high. The average start belied what lurked beneath the surface of this January that felt more like Northern California than SW Washington.This month delivered 13 days with low temps above 40° and 10 afternoons that played in the fifties. But fifties were not all this month had on its mind, I pulled a 60.1° day under the warm rays of 'El Sol'. That 60.1° mark came on the 14th and was the warmest January 14th on record for me. Other areas around the metro picked up daily records as well. I had four personal daily record highs since my records began in 2002. The entire metro area had multiple daily high records last month. I broke 17 year dailies on the 6th with 49.8°, the 11th with 54.3°, the 13th with 58.8°, and the 14th with 60.1°. I got close to a record on the 28th when I hit 58.8 again falling short of the 59.5 best from a decade ago.
The warmest overnight low came on the 12th when we barely dropped under 50 with 47.3° evening. The coldest day was a rather normalish, 28° on the 2nd. We managed to get above 40° every single day last month. The chilliest day was the aforementioned Jan 2nd with a 41.7° high. Just three days dropped below freezing.
One might think that all that warm weather was accompanied by the 'Pineapple Express' rainfall. Yet no there wasn't any such express event. La Niña remained in control and rainfall at my house was well under my 17 year average, but not particularly "dry". 4.74 inches hit the bucket against an "normal" mark of 7.05 inches. The wettest day was the 24th with 0.61 inches and I recorded 6 days with a 1/4 inch or more. It was a mostly cloudy month, which is also typical for January. I had just a single sunny day with about 3 more partly sunny.
The real stat is the monthly average low of 39.01° which is a whopping 5° above my 17 year average. The daytime highs came in well above as well with a 48.88° about 4 degrees warmer than average.
So what of all this January warmth? Are we headed for an early spring? Or is winter prepping for a late run int he 4th quarter? You never really know about these matters. February 2014 was cold and snowy as was March of 2012. If the warmish weather continues past Valentines Day the odds of any severe winter weather begin to rapidly increase. As for that stupid groundhog, he's in Pennsylvania and we are in Washington. They are having a cold winter, we are having a mild one. Perhaps we are going to switch that around, or maybe we stay put. It all plays out over the next 6 weeks, the second half of winter, begins now.
