A Very Typical Start to the New Year.

Last month went down like a statistical norm. Temps averaged out to less than 1º under average by night and less than 1º over by day. Rainfall was an inch shy of my 20 year average, but still pretty 'normal' by my book. The month was not without it variances as I did manage to post two 20 year daily lows as well as three 20 year daily highs all with in the confines of a normal January.

The year started off right out of the gate with the chilliest morning of the month on New Year's Day posting a 19.4º low which to my surprise was the coldest January 1st at this station in 20 years, and the only temperature of the month below 20 degrees. This is one of two daily record lows at my house to fall the other a 20.9º mark on the 26th. That one less surprising as the latter part of January tends to see average temps rise quite a bit from the dark and chilly weeks around the Solstice. These two records were among the 10 days with sub freezing temps, a pretty typical number for January. 

The other three daily records were warm afternoon highs with the first on the 6th with a 55º day, then the warmest mark of the month at 58º on the 12th, followed up later in the month with a 56.7º degree reading on the 20th. The warmest overnight low came on the 13th with a mark of 44º one of six warm evenings in the 40s. The chilliest afternoon high arrived on the very first day of the year following that daily record low when the merc stopped at 36.8º well above the daily record and one of three days that were trapped below 40º. A total of four days managed to breach the 50º mark also not that uncommon. 

The rain gauge collected 6.04 inches of precipitation all in the form of rain. January on average is the 'snowiest' month but this year saw nary a flake. I've average 7.05 over the years so a tad under but still typical for the month. The wettest day arrived on the 6th with 1.48 inches which was the only day with over an inch and one of seven days over a 1/4 inch. January delivered 14 rainy days and 2 sunny days. Several of our would be 'clear days' came under a heavy inversion layer in which fog was stuck at the valley floors while the foothills and mountains were sunny and quite warm in the 50s. The foothills above a thousand feet had at least a dozen sunny days.

Will there be anymore snow this year? Well that's a tough one as 85% of our average snowfall comes in the three months associated with winter, December, January, and February. We were well above average in December this year, I posted 6.5 inches, but January was a zero. Odds are, some snow will come this month but even if we go a snow free second half of the winter season, we will still be at 75% of normal snow so I'll say we have a 65% chance of at least a dusting of snow before the season ends. 

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.