Earth Changes

Record warmth: Longest time Washington D.C. above freezing in January since 1872

Angela Fritz
Washington Post
Fri, 27 Jan 2017 07:09 UTC

It's nothing compared to D.C.'s record-warm December in 2015 — when the daffodils were blooming and people wore short-sleeve T-shirts on Christmas — but so far, this month has been hovering in uncharted territory, as well.

It's not a sexy record, but it's a significant one. As of Friday morning, the city has had 16 days above 32 degrees, which is the longest span of time it's been above freezing in January since records began in D.C. in 1872.

January is supposed to be the coldest time of the year, but the weird-weather spell is yet another warm milestone for the capital, all of which have occurred since 2010.

So far, this January has an average temperature of 41.9 degrees, which is the second-warmest January since 2000 and the 12th-warmest overall.

Reader Comments

mumbo_jumbo · 2017-02-03T09:04:32Z

and on the left coast here in socal it's been cool and raining for 3 months straight......we finally had a couple days in the 70's

shellycheval · 2017-02-03T11:41:42Z

In this same area there was also about a two week period in this last December when when the temperature stayed below freezing every night and at or barely above freezing every day. Also, very unusual but we don't usually hear about cold records in the "real news."