I’m a little late in dishing the stats out this month, but
you’ll find it’s well worth the wait! OK, maybe January wasn’t
that exciting, but we did achieve some pretty cold
numbers. How cold, you ask? Let’s bring out the stats!
Just one brief look at this chart will tell you everything you
need to know about this month. Not only were our nighttime
temperatures unseasonably cold for an extended period of time, but
our high temperatures often hovered above or just beneath the
average low temperature for January! Out of this month’s 31 days,
nearly half of them were spent in the 30s with 4 nights in the
teens. Several other nights hovered close to the 20 degree mark,
but couldn’t make the commitment to dip a little further.
MORE JANUARY
TEMPERATURE STATS
Average high temperature: 42.9°
Average Low Temperature: 33.5°
Actual high
temperature average (2013): 40.9°; 2° below normal
Actual low
temperature average (2013): 30.8°; 2.7° below normal
Average overall
temperature: 38.2°
Actual overall
temperature: 35.8°; 2.4° below normal
COLD
AND DRY?
I suppose to be fair, a lot of this cold air was the result of
several days of inversions. Usually when we have a big ridge of
high pressure in the winter, there is so much moisture already on
the ground and in the air that low clouds and fog form, leaving the
higher elevations mild and dry.
Indeed, we never had any arctic air intrusions, just a lot of
what I like to call “fake cold”.
So you can imagine if we had a lot of inversion activity we
didn’t have a whole lot of rain. To be specific, we ended the month
with only 3.59” of rain in the gauge, which is puny when standing
against the monthly average of 8.89”.
At least the mountains benefited, right? For them, this month
featured the perfect combo of mild, sunny days and cold, snowy
days. I think it’d be fair to say the mountains have fared
exceptionally well this winter despite the doom and gloom forecasts
of an always destructive El Nino event.
Aside from the fog and cold conditions of January, there really
wasn’t much else to report.
Heavy rain, wind, and wet snow at the beginning of the month
made it seem like we’d be in for an active weather period, but it
was all a show.
And what about February? Any exciting news? No, not really. At
least the sun’s influence is getting stronger this time of year, so
such thick inversions will be less likely this month. The short
term looks classically showery and cool with a few sun breaks from
time to time. If you’re looking for some significantly warmer
weather, Phil the Groundhog assures us it’s in the not-too-distant
future 🙂
Have a great evening,
Matthew Leach
Forecasting Kitsap
E-mail: forecastingkitsap@live.com
