January 2012 Highs and Lows
What a warm month! The Ozarks, and indeed much of the U.S., experienced a much above normal temperature pattern in January.
Our warmest day was 69 degrees on the 16th. Six days out of the month saw highs of sixty or higher. Our average temperature for the month ended up at 38.1 degrees or 5.5 above the normal (1981-2010)
Snow No-Show
The only measurable snow came on the 11th/12th when Springfield measured most of its season snowfall to date with 0.7″ This fell in the wake of a strong push of cold air. It was a Thursday. (sorry, channeled Forrest Gump there for a second)
Remember That Thursday?
January 12th was a cold one! Howling northwesterly winds produced wind chills that dropped below zero at times. The high on the 11th was 56 while the high on the 12th only reached 26 degrees, which was not achieved at the normal late-afternoon time !
The snow kept reinventing itself with each new little batch adding just a touch more to the accumulation total. Some areas did pick up more than an inch of the white stuff.
Some Cold
We got down to 13 twice this month and our coldest morning was 11 on the 18th. The most significant cold fronts passed through on the 11th/12th and on the 17th/18th.
January Precipitation Total
Not Much Precipitation
The most significant rain system came our way on the 25th. Areas of northern Arkansas exceeded two inches of rain. Otherwise, it was a dry month over the area, especially in Missouri. Springield ended up about an inch and one half below normal.
Wind Was a Factor
It was fairly breezy in January. The peak wind gust exceeded 30 mph on 9 of the 31 days in January. Our peak gust was 40 mph on the 22nd.
We Had Tornado Warnings!
Many of you likely slept through it. It only affected a small portion of the Ozarks and it happened during the late evening and overnight hours. Our only run-in with spring-like weather came on started on late Monday evening the 16th and ran into the early morning hours of the 17h.