North Iowans are used to wild weather extremes in the wintertime but going from balmy highs in the 60s to wind chills of minus-60 in the course of several days is radical, even for the Hawkeye State. State climatologist Justin Glisan says the month of January started out quite warm and stayed that way -almost- through the end.
It was almost like somebody roused a dozing Mother Nature from her slumber last Sunday and reminded her it’s supposed to be winter in Iowa — and she overreacted a bit.
Overall, the statewide average temperature for January was 18-point-five degrees, about one-degree below normal. Glisan says it appears February will remain colder than normal.
Precipitation for January statewide averaged one-point-32 inches, which is four-tenths of an inch above normal. He notes, January is typically the driest month of the year.
