Warmest start to the New Year in 14 years

Posted: Jan 2, 2019 / 01:34 AM EST / Updated: Jan 2, 2019 / 01:34 AM EST

Quite a start to the New Year! We finished 2018 with the wettest December 31st on record here in Columbus, which also made it the wettest year on record too. Temps did top at 61 though for the 31st, and we kept some of that warmth into 2019 with an official high of 58 today (early this morning).

Looking at ‘average temp’ this was the warmest Jan. 1st in 14 years

When you take into account the high and the low temp for the day, and average the two together this gives us our warmest January 1st since 2005. (I am writing this story before midnight, so I used the forecast low temp for this evening as the basis. At the time of this writing our average temp is 0.5 cooler than 2005 already).

	High	Low	Average
1/1/2019	58	36	47
1/1/2018	11	-2	4.5
1/1/2017	48	29	38.5
1/1/2016	36	27	31.5
1/1/2015	37	18	27.5
1/1/2014	40	23	31.5
1/1/2013	34	20	27
1/1/2012	55	32	43.5
1/1/2011	58	29	43.5
1/1/2010	34	17	25.5
1/1/2009	33	18	25.5
1/1/2008	46	18	32
1/1/2007	52	36	44
1/1/2006	46	32	39
1/1/2005	52	46	49

This was the 9th warmest January 1st based on high temp

It was also tied with 2011 when the high temp hit 58 degrees also.

1	1952	67
2	1985	65
3	1890	62
4	1897	61
5	1930	60
6	1979	59
7	1921	59
8	1916	59
9	2019	58

2018 & 2019 could not have started any differently

The early morning hours of January 1st were nearly 60 degrees different as we were below zero early on 2018, and nearly 60 early in 2019!

1-1-2019 was the 9th warmest high temp on record for the date at 58 degrees
1-1-2018 was the 3rd coldest high temp on record for the date at 11 degrees
1-1-2019 will finish in the top 15 warmest for low temp
1-1-2018 was the 2nd coldest low temp for the date at -2 degrees
1-1-2018 had 2″ of snow on the ground, and we were running almost 2″ above normal for snow with 8.1″ already
1-1-2019 has no snow on the ground, and we are nearly 4″ below normal for snowfall
December 2018 was the 17th lowest snowfall on record at 0.4″

Looking ahead, the 1st half of January should remain mild/warm

My 7 day forecast has highs running nearly 4-14 degrees above normal each day. Looking at the 6-10 and 8-14 day forecasts from the Climate Prediction Center at NOAA, it appears we will stay above normal for the 1st half of the month.

…and today was the warmest & driest January 1st on record

Let that stat sink in a bit, but the previous 11 warmest high temps for January 1st all recorded some sort of measurable rainfall. It really makes sense if you are going to be 20+ degrees above normal.

Today though, because our record rain came yesterday, the technicality of the high occurring 9 mins into the day helped us out, but we will take it!