By Chuck Otte
Geary County Extension Agent ( Ret. ) Chuck Otte
The January 2026 weather summary can be summed up by saying it was a tale of two extremes. The average for the month was right where it would be expected, but it took extremes to get it there.
The average daily high for January was 40.4, six tenths of a degree above average. The average overnight low was 19.1, three tenths of a degree below normal. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 29.7, one tenth of a degree above the long term average. Now for the extremes. The first three weeks of January had an average temperature of 37.6, 8 degrees above normal. The last ten days had an average temperature of 13.2, 16.4 degrees below normal. The highest temperature for the month was 68 degrees on the 7th. The lowest temperature was -10 on the morning of the 27th. This gave us a monthly temperature range of 78 degrees.
The warmest January on record was in 2006 with a monthly mean temperature of 43.9. For the first three weeks of the year we were on track to have a top five warmest January. Then the polar vortex arrived and reset the month to “average”. The coldest January on record was in 1979 with a monthly mean temperature of 12.1 degrees. Imagine the weather we had the last ten days of the month for the entire month. That is what it was like!
There were two temperature records set during the month and one tied. The high of 62 on the 6th broke the old record high for that date of 59 set in 2019. The overnight low of 44 on the 8th broke the previous record high low temperature of 41 set in 2018. The low of -10 on the 27th tied the record low for that date first set in 1963. The record high of 62 on the 6th is significant as it was previously one of two daily record highs that was below 60 degrees. We are now left with the record high of 59 on December 12th (1948) as the only daily record high below 60 degrees for the entire year.
There were two significant precipitation events for the month. In the first ten days of January we had a very nice rainfall event, and a little snow. Towards the end of the month we had a significant snowfall event that brought 6 to 8 inches to the area. The combination of these two brought a total of 1.52 inches of liquid precipitation. This is double our average January precipitation which is 0.73 inches. January is our driest month of the year so these two events were very welcome! Snowfall for January, measured near Milford, totaled 8.5 inches. Normal for January is 4.7 inches. Snowfall, season to date, we have received 9.7 inches. Normal through January is 9.4 inches.
February normally will bring us warming temperatures, about the same amount of snow as we receive in January but overall slightly more liquid precipitation. Average temperatures in February start the month around 40 degrees and by the end of our shortest month of the year we have risen to about 50 degrees. Overnight lows start the month around 19 degrees and have risen to about 26 degrees by the end of the month. Average snowfall is 4.7 inches and average liquid precipitation is 1.10 inches which makes February tied with January for our snowiest month, but also our second driest month.