January 2026 OBS and Discussion

[sussexcountyobs]

Mostly cloudy. -1F

[SACRUS]

Month dep

EWR: -2.8 (30.1)   / 2.28 LE / 16.1 snow
 

[MANDA]

Overnight low of 0.3.  Corrected.  Long story.

January precipitation: 2.76".  Another month on the drier side of the ledger.

January snowfall: 21.7".

Snowfall season to date: 34.8".

[TJW014]

I'll take this sunny/frigid weather any day over 35 and overcast. If you can stay out of the wind, the sun feels great. 

Feels like a true winter. 

[SACRUS]

 

LGA

Jan: -3.7 (30.8) / 2.21 LE / 13.1 snow

[SACRUS]

 

JFK

Jan:  -3 (29.9) / 2.47 LE / 13 snow

[Roger Smith]

So I guess Islip wasn't operating in 1961, 1920 or 1881 (three years with subzero lows in the area).

NYC at 30.4 F had its (tied) 55th coldest January of the now 158 in data, and using a sliding scale of 0 to 2 F for urban heat island conversion, it ranked 44th coldest. In that series, it was between 1963 (45th) and 2022 (43rd).

[donsutherland1]

2 hours ago, Roger Smith said:

So I guess Islip wasn't operating in 1961, 1920 or 1881 (three years with subzero lows in the area).

NYC at 30.4 F had its (tied) 55th coldest January of the now 158 in data, and using a sliding scale of 0 to 2 F for urban heat island conversion, it ranked 44th coldest. In that series, it was between 1963 (45th) and 2022 (43rd).

Yes. That’s correct.

[EastonSN+]

12 hours ago, donsutherland1 said:

Yes. That’s correct.

Hey Don, how many winter months in a row have we been below average? I believe December January February and March last year were.

[donsutherland1]

43 minutes ago, EastonSN+ said:

Hey Don, how many winter months in a row have we been below average? I believe December January February and March last year were.

Last winter, December-February were below normal. March as 4.1° above normal.

[RU848789]

On 1/31/2026 at 8:39 PM, donsutherland1 said:

January finished with a mean temperature of 30.4° (3.3° below normal) in New York City's Central Park.

Don - as always, love these posts, thanks.  Any insight into how cold Dec/Jan were, historically speaking?  Seems like probably in the coldest 30-40 D/J combos for NYC and much of the area off the top of my head, although maybe I'm biasing that based on how cold it's been since 1/23 and will likely be for the 3 weeks through 2/12.  Too bad we had that warmup in early Jan.  

[donsutherland1]

28 minutes ago, RU848789 said:

Don - as always, love these posts, thanks.  Any insight into how cold Dec/Jan were, historically speaking?  Seems like probably in the coldest 30-40 D/J combos for NYC and much of the area off the top of my head, although maybe I'm biasing that based on how cold it's been since 1/23 and will likely be for the 3 weeks through 2/12.  Too bad we had that warmup in early Jan.  

Philadelphia's December-January mean temperature of 33.3° was the coldest such period since Winter 2010-2011 (31.0°). It was tied for the 48th coldest such period on record.

New York City's December-January mean temperature of 32.1° was also the coldest such period since 2010-2011 (31.2°). It was also tied for the 48th coldest such period on record.

[SnoSki14]

11 minutes ago, donsutherland1 said:

Philadelphia's December-January mean temperature of 33.3° was the coldest such period since Winter 2010-2011 (31.0°). It was tied for the 48th coldest such period on record.

New York City's December-January mean temperature of 32.1° was also the coldest such period since 2010-2011 (31.2°). It was also tied for the 48th coldest such period on record.

Goes to show how warm its been this decade + when the period has felt so cold yet it barely ranks in the top 50 coldest.