January 2016 Climate Summary Now Available

Overview - El Niño Impacting Rocky Mountain Snowpack

It would be tough to summarize January’s climate conditions across the High Plains region in a few words, as a wide range of conditions occurred. There were very few top 10 rankings for temperature and precipitation this month, as most places did not see extremes one way or the other. One exception is Jamestown, North Dakota, which experienced its driest January on record and only recorded a trace of precipitation (period of record 1949-2016). Much of the state had below normal precipitation in January, as did many other areas across the High Plains. Wetter conditions prevailed in parts of Wyoming and Colorado, as well as an area from northern Kansas northward through southeastern South Dakota. Temperature records were not particularly impressive this month, but most notably, North Dakota experienced temperatures that were 2.0-6.0 degrees F (1.1-3.3 degrees C) above normal. It was cooler than normal in parts of Wyoming and Colorado, and a constant snowpack may have kept temperatures cooler across the Nebraska panhandle and western South Dakota. El Niño is also impacting Rocky Mountain snowpack, as forecasts for below normal snowpack in the Northern Rockies and above normal snowpack in the Southern Rockies have verified thus far.

A powerful winter storm struck the eastern U.S. the weekend of January 22-24. Heavy snow and high winds caused blizzard conditions and impacted an area from Arkansas to Massachusetts that included East Coast cities such as New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. More than 30.0 inches (76 cm) of snow fell in one day at John. F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Allentown, Pennsylvania, obliterating their previous records for maximum one-day total snowfall. The blizzard caused major travel and transportation disruptions in the larger cities, Broadway shows in New York were cancelled, and storm surge from the blizzard caused coastal flooding in New Jersey. Even southern cities had impressive snow totals. For instance, Nashville, Tennessee received over a year’s worth of snowfall with this storm, coming in at 8.0 inches (20 cm). This amount was 1.7 inches (4 cm) higher than the city’s normal annual snowfall.

For more information on temperature, precipitation, and impacts from climate in January in the High Plains region, please see the link to the full PDF of the summary: http://hprcc.unl.edu/climatesummaries.php