January was warm and ended up being the 5 th wettest in history
In the battle between warm spells and cold spells, the warm spells had the advantage 2 to 1, making the overall temperature 3.3 degrees above average. Although there were 3 days more than 10 degrees below average, they were offset by 5 days more than 12 degrees above. The high of 14.2°C on the 30
th was tied for the second warmest January day we have seen in the region since records began almost 100 years ago.
It looked like it was going to be just an average month for precipitation, but over 50 mm in the last 4 days shot the total to 114.7 mm. This is well above the average of 64.4 mm and made it the 5 th wettest January since records began in the region.
The total snowfall of 22.5 cm was only about half of 43.5 cm January average, this shows that most of the month’s precipitation fell as rain.
Summary for January 2013:
Maximum Temperature 14.2°C
Minimum Temperature -20.0°C
Average Daily High Temperature 0.2°C (Long term average –3.1°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -6.9°C (Long term average -11.0°C)
Total Precipitation 114.7 mm (Long term average 64.4 mm)
(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)