ORD Temperature Updates 2008 (Jan.)

In this blog, I'll recount the records, near records and significantly abnormal temperatures of 2008, starting with the current and looking back to January 1st.
This post covers January 2008.

January 30: the third coldest of the last 30 years. The high was 12 with a low of -2 (an 18-degree departure from normal). This was only the second high in the 10s and third low in the negative single digits for the past 30 years.

January 29: a day of contrasts...high of 48, then a cold front came through and brought it crashing down to just 2 degrees...both the high and low were significantly above and below the normals of 30 and 15.

January 25: tied 1991 as the 2nd coldest January 25th...This year was 20/-5 and '91 was 16/-1...both days were 14.5 degrees below normal mean

January 24: third coldest (10/-4) behind 1987's 9/-5 and 1982's 3/-3

January 23: one of only three highs in the 10s (14 degrees)

January 20: fourth coldest (10/-5)...keep in mind, this date is famous for it's brutal cold: -20 in 1984, -27 in 1985 and -12 in 1994.

January 19: fourth coldest (6/-3)...after all, it's hard to compete with lows of -19 (1994), -23 (1985) and -13 (1984).

January 10: tied 1983 as third warmest...1983 had a high of 41 with a low of 35 while '08 was 44/32...only the fourth 40s high and fourth 30s low of the last 30.

January 8: the warmest of the last 30 years: the high of 56 was two better than 2003's 54...the low of 37 tied 2003's 37 as the warmest low.

January 7: Incredible warmth! The warmest January 7th by far! High of 65 (new record - broke 59 in 1907 - only 60s high for the date) and low of 51 (only 50s low for the date) and a new record warmest low (broke 44 in 1965)...the mean of 58 was 36 degrees above normal.

January 6: The warmest January 6th by far! Record high of 60 and record warmest low of 41 (broke former record high of 54 in 1907 and former record warmest low of 40, also in 1907)...the mean of 50.5 was 28.5 degrees above the normal mean...it was also the only 60s high and 40s low of the last 30 years for the date.

January 5: third warmest...high of 43 was only the 2nd 40s high (it hit 40 in 1987)

January 3: the low of zero was only the 4th single-digit low but it was the coldest single-digit low for the date.

January 2: high of 20, low of 2...the low of 2 was the 5th single-digit low and tied 2 in 1988...it was overall the 3rd coldest Jan. 2nd...only 1979 (4/-13) and 1985 (14/-3) were colder.

- Bernie -