Dear Tom,
Has any year produced a January that was the warmest of the three months of meteorological winter for that season?
–Nick Recchia
Dear Nick,
January, with an average temperature of 24.4 degrees, is usually the winter’s coldest month, followed by February (27.9 degrees) and December (28.9 degrees). Those are long-term averages, but weather-wise Chicagoans understand that more often than not, day-to-day temperatures are wide fluctuations above and below the averages. That holds for monthly average temperatures as well. A scan of 139 years of Chicago temperatures shows that December has been the winter season’s mildest month 74 times (53 percent of the winters), January 17 times (12 percent) and February 48 times (35 percent). Most recently, the winter of 2005-06 featured January as its mildest month.
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Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or: asktomwhy@wgntv.com
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