7 airports set all-time January highs; Chicago sees record-late snow

All-time January high records set this month.

According to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, there have now been seven major airports in the U.S. that have set all-time warmest temperature records for the month of January (Topeka, KS, Columbia, MO, San Jose, CA, Fayetteville, NC, Bluefield, WV, Bradford, PA, and Evanston, WY); two have set all-time lows (Aspen, CO and Alturas, CA.)

On the snow front, Chicago had its first official 1" snow of the season back on January 25th, the latest date that's ever occurred in the period of official weather records. The previous record-latest 1" snow in Chicago was on January 17, 1899. Weather trivia: Al Capone, who would later become a notorious figure in Chicago history, was born on January 17th, 1899. He died on January 25th, (1947).

Embarrass, MN hit a brisk -42 degrees F on January 24th, which is no record, but chilly nonetheless. Embarrass is the would-be holder of the all-time Minnesota low temperature record, but on February 2, 1996, the Embarrass thermometer broke at an incredible -56 °F and the nearby Tower weather station went all the way for the -60 °F record which is on the books. Unofficially, Embarrass did hit -64 °F on a second thermometer nearby, so they tend to get an honorable mention in the story, because who can blame them for instrument failure?

The Embarrass weather station is housed in a little shack, though it seems like the actual measurements are done about 1/4 of a mile away in a coop observer's backyard. Inside there is a sign-in book with people from all over the world as well as newspaper articles on the walls from the February 2, 1996 record reading of -56 °F, according to a personal account by Daniel Dix at The Weather Channel.


The weather station shack in Embarrass, MN.

Keep warm!

Angela, filling in for Chris