January not a lion in winter this year

February 09, 2006|By KAREN HANNA

HAGERSTOWN

The shirt sleeves and flower blooms were out of season, but in tune with the temperature.

January was one of the warmest on record, according to a local weather observer, AccuWeather and the National Weather Service.

For January, normally "the king of winter," temperatures were extremely mild, AccuWeather expert senior meteorologist Dave Dombeck said.

"I don't have any specific records for Hagerstown, but there were tons of records broken from the plains states to the East Coast," Dombeck said.

Last month's average temperature was 38.9 degrees, making it the seventh-warmest January on record, according to www.i4weather.net, a Web site maintained by Hagerstown weather observer Greg Keefer.

The warmest day was Jan. 9, when the high reached 65 degrees; the coldest reading was Jan. 27, when the low hit 17 degrees, according to the site.

The warmest January on record was in 1932, when temperatures averaged 42.9 degrees, according to the site.

National Weather Service hydrometereologist Calvin Meadows said the average temperature at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., was 41.8 degrees, making last month the warmest January at that location since 1962.

The temperature was about 10 degrees warmer than average, Meadows and Dombeck said.

|

|

|