WASHINGTON — January 2018 in the U.S. brought a mix of temperature trends, generally splitting the country in half, while much of the US trended drier than normal. For the month as a whole, the Western portion of the country trended warmer than normal while the South Central, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic trended cooler than normal. Areas like the Northeast and North Central were generally close to normal for the month as a whole. But while the trends out West do a good job representing week to week temperature trends, the same cannot be said for the Central and Eastern US. January started on a very cold note for these regions, with many trending more than 15F below normal. Freezing temperatures reached down to the Gulf Coast with single digit lows stretching down into Kansas, Colorado, and Missouri. A lack of snow cover south of Iowa and Nebraska left winter wheat crops exposed to these frigid temperatures and susceptible to winterkill. By the next week, though, temperatures moderated in the Central and Eastern US with trends slightly above normal. But while trends out West continued to be warmer than normal, the following week once again brought colder than normal temperatures to much of the Central and Eastern US.
While overall weekly trends may have not been quite as cold as the start of the month, temperatures during the first half of the week were indeed just as cold as those earlier in the month. Once again, temperatures were more than 15F below normal for many through mid-week. Unlike early January, though, temperatures well above normal spread into the Northern Plains later in the week and to the East Coast by the weekend. These much warmer trends continued into the last full week of January. Much of the East trended at least 5-10F above normal for the week as a whole, with areas from Minnesota to Missouri, to western Pennsylvania trending 10-15F above normal. This last full week was the only week where the Southwest trended near to slightly cooler than normal. While these much warmer trends didn’t stick around into the last few days of January and the first few days of February, temperatures did not experience the same drop as in weeks prior. It’s safe to say, temperature trends were on a roller coaster ride this January in the East!
Unlike temperature trends, January precipitation trends were more consistent across the country. Overall monthly trends were drier than normal. While most weeks were generally drier than normal, week 2 of the month brought some wetter trends to many, especially in the Northeast and Southwest. Snowfall was much greater than last year in the Northeast and Ohio Valley but less than last year in the Northern Plains and out West. Monthly snowfall was below normal for the country as a whole and only above normal in the Southeast region.
As we start February, expect there to be a wholesale change from last year, especially as it relates to temperatures. February 2017 was very warm for the Eastern half of the country, ranking as the 2nd warmest in 123 years for the country as a whole. This year, however, overall monthly trends are forecast to only be warmer than normal out West while the Plains trend cooler than normal. The Northeast and Northern Rockies could see an increase in precipitation this month, with more snowfall than last year expected across the center of the nation and into the Mid-Atlantic.
For more WeatherTrends360, click here.