January 2013 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

After the big snow dump on December 9, the snowfall came to a relative halt in January. According to the snow statistics from the St. Cloud Reformatory, there were only 2.5 inches in January, 8 inches below average. There were a total of 9 days with measurable snowfall in January ( two more than average), but no day produced even an inch of snow. Because of this, the snowfall for the 2012-2013 season through the end of January was only 20.7 inches, more than six and a half inches less than normal. However, it was within one major snowstorm of the entire 2011-2012 season, which totaled only 27.4 inches.

There was more precipitation than the snow in January with a total of 0.45 inches. This was still 0.2 inches less than average, but included a storm on January 9-10 that produced 0.20 inches of lprecipitation, all in the form of rain. There was some freezing rain further to the north, but St. Cloud got all liquid.

Despite being seven degrees colder than January 2012, St. Cloud still managed to be warmer than average. The January average temperature was 13.2°F, 1.6°F. Since June 2011, only October 2012 has been colder than average. The warm readings peaked early in the month, when the high temperature climbed above freezing for 6 straight days. In fact, the low temperature never dropped below freezing on January 11, setting a record warm low and a record warm average for the date. This also included the rain on the 10th and 11th. This warm period snapped a brief cold period on New Year's Day, which featured one of the two -18°F lows during the month. However, colder air reestablished itself on the 12th. Another surge of cold air that began on January 19 produced the first high temperature of 0°F or colder in St. Cloud since January 22, 2011. The -6°F was the coldest high temperature St. Cloud has seen since January 15, 2009. There were 13 low temperautres of zero or colder in Januar, a far cry from last winter in which there were only 10 such days all winter. Through the end of January, St. Cloud is right on track for an average number of zero or colder lows, with 25 days so far (2 less than average). y Still, St. Cloud hasn't had a temperature of -20°F or colder since February 10, 2011.