January is turning out to be a month of extremes, both warm and cold. Despite six nights where the nighttime low dropped down below -20 degrees Celsius, and four of those days where the daytime high was close to or even below the normal nighttime low, the average temperature is still one and half degrees above normal.
This is because during the second week of the month, the “January thaw,” there were three days when the nighttime low exceeded the normal daytime high. So, when it’s been warm, it’s been really warm, and when it’s been cold, it’s been really cold – including -29 C in the early morning of January 25.
The average temperature cooled more than a full degree in the last week, dropping from -6.1 C to -7.2 C, which is still a degree and a half warmer than the normal for the whole month at -8.6 C. This is certain to continue to drop as January comes to a close, but despite the very cold temperatures that have been experienced, the average for the month will be close to average.
The light dusting of snow each day continued through the third week, accompanied by one moderate snowstorm, for a total of 10 centimetres of snow, which melted down to 5 millimetres of water – so, very light stuff indeed. This brought the month-to-date total for precipitation to 53 mm, which is nearly 20 per cent less than normal. The precipitation was made up of 38 cm snow and 20 mm of rain and freezing rain.
The forecast for the last week of January is more cold, particularly for the daytime highs which will be well below normal, and this will continue through most of February – it’ll be Valentine’s Day before we even come close to normal temperatures for the time of the year.