By Chuck Otte
County Extension Agent, Retired
On average, January is our coldest month of the year and is tied with February for the snowiest. January 2025 didn’t disappoint in those aspects. Temperatures were below normal and it was incredibly snowy/wet.
The average daily high for January was 34 degrees. 5.8 degrees below average. The average overnight low was 17.2, 2.2 degrees below average. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 25.6, 4 degrees below average. In fact, January 2025 was the coldest January since January 2011's 24.1 monthly mean temperature. The coldest temperature for the month was the morning low of -15 on the 21st, which tied the record low for that date, first set in 1985. The highest temperature for the month was the afternoon high of 54 on the 29th. That was the only daily high of 50 or above in January and the first daily high above 50 since we hit 55 on December 29th!
One other temperature record was set in January. The overnight low of 38 on the 30th set a new record high daily low temperature for that date. The old record was 37 set in 2017.
The coldest January on record was in 1979 with a brutal monthly mean temperature of only 12.1 degrees. The warmest January on record was in 2006 when we had a monthly mean temperature of a balmy 43.9 degrees. Daily high temperatures, compared to average for their date, showed that we were only at or above long term average daily highs on 10 days during the month. We also had three days when the daily high was lower than the average low for that date!
January, and February, are typically our snowiest months of the year with average monthly snowfall of 4.7 inches each month. Monthly liquid precipitation average for January is only 0.73 inches, making January the snowiest, yet driest, month of the year. A significant snowstorm event moved through the area the first weekend of January hitting the area with a foot plus of snowfall. Milford Lake Corps of Engineers Office recorded 16 inches of snow for that one event and a monthly total of 18.2 inches of snow. Our average annual snowfall is only 18 inches. When all that snow was melted down, along with some rain at the very end of the month, the region received 1.80 inches of liquid precipitation, roughly 250% of normal!
In fact, the past three Januarys have all received 1.80 inches or more of precipitation. This January will enter the record books as the eighth wettest January on record (2024 was the seventh wettest and 2023 was the sixth wettest.) The wettest January was 1949 with a whopping 4.28 inches of liquid precipitation. The driest January was in 1986 when no precipitation was recorded for the month.
While average temperatures bottom out in early January and then slowly start to rise, February brings us nicely warming temperatures. But keep in mind that it is still winter and we can also experience some brutally cold weather during the month. Average daily highs start the month at 40 and by the end of the month we are nearly to 50 degrees. Overnight lows on the 1st are around 19 and by the end of the month they have risen to 26 degrees. As previously mentioned, average snowfall for February is 4.7 inches and total average precipitation for the month is 1.10 inches, making February our second driest month of the year.