Tri-State Slightly Warmer in January
Temperatures ended up slightly above normal, due to the warm first 2 to 3 weeks. Through January 19th, Paducah was tied for the 10th warmest start to January on record.
Only 3 of the first 19 days registered a daily average temperature below normal. But then the pattern changed and colder temperatures became common during the last 10 to 12 days. An arctic airmass paid the region a visit between January 29-31 with lows down in the single digits and teens, and even some subzero readings in portions of southern Illinois and southwest Indiana on January 30th. Wind chill values were as cold as 15 to 20 below zero along the I-64 corridor. The -19 wind chill in Evansville was only the 2nd time in the past 22 years wind chills have been that cold. The other occurrence happened on January 6, 2014, when wind chills dipped to -22.
Precipitation was generally above normal across the majority of the area. Many locations ended up 0.5” to 2” wetter than normal. The exception was across portions of the Pennryrile of western Kentucky, which finished near to slightly drier than normal.
Snowfall was also above normal for much of southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, and southwest Indiana. The highest amounts ended up over southern Illinois, where some locations observed around a foot of snow (13.8″ at the weather station in Marion, IL and 11.3″ southwest of Mount Vernon, IL).
Portions of western Kentucky near the Tennessee border observed the least snowfall, not even reaching 2 inches in some locales. The majority of the snow fell during two events: January 11-12th and 19th.
