Not a record-but January was colder & snowier than usual

January ended 8 degrees colder than usual and snow fall was about four inches more than normal.  Read all the details here-

Last month ended as the 27^th coldest January in records to 1879.  But official weather observer Jim Blaess says the overall average temperature of just over 14 degrees was about 8 degrees below the normal for the month.  The weather observer says although the temperature was below normal you only have to go back to 2009 for a colder January.

There were two periods with zero or below readings for extended periods of time.  Blaess says one of those was January 5^th through the 7^th for nearly 47 hours and January 26^th through 28^th for about 35 hours.  The longest period of below zero readings was at the start of 1996  when it was below zero for 142 hours ending January 5^th of that year.

Blaess says there were 13 days with zero or below readings during the month and that’s the most since 1982 when there were 14. The normal for January is five days.

With 23 days of below zero readings for the winter of 2013-2014, Blaess says it was the winters of late 1970’s when there were 30 and 31 days with below zero readings to find more days with below zero days.

The precipitation for the January was about 1-and-a-quarter inches which was just below normal.  But Blaess says that translated in about 13 inches of snow and that’s about 4 inches more than normal.  Last month’s snowfall was the most since January of 2000 that had nearly 17 inches of snow.

For the snow season of October through January the snowfall total is nearly 29 inches and that’s about ten inches above normal.  Blaess also pointed out that last year during the same time the snow total was about 7 and –a-half inches.

For February Blaess said the average snow total is just less than 7 inches.  But he said there has been a little over 2 inches already this month.  Also there is an average of 3 days with zero or below temperatures, but there are two already in the first three days according to Blaess.

On the positive side, Blaess said the average temperature rise from the normal high on February first of 32 and low of 15 to averages of 41 and 23 by the end of the month.