January warm, but not quite the warmest ever

Tim Newcomb
Tribune assistant editor

  WHATCOM — Make no mistake. January 2010 is about as warm as it gets in January in north Whatcom County.
  With just a few days left in the month, this January is on track to be one of the four warmest January months in local history at least since records were kept, starting in 1931.
  As recorded by Roderic Perry at a National Weather System station in Clearbrook northeast of Lynden, this month’s high temperatures have averaged 49.2 degrees, as of Monday’s high.
  That is well above the historic average of 41.7 degrees.
  The warmest day of the month so far has been the 61 degrees of Monday, Jan. 11.
  The warmest January on record at Clearbrook brought an average of 50.0 degrees in 1961. And the only January months to record plus-49 degree averages were the 49.4 of 1986 and the 49.2 of 1994. There have been a handful of January months in the 48-degree range, including most recently in 2003.
  In fact, the average high hasn’t dipped below the historic average of 41.7 since 1996.
  But that is just the average high. The average low so far this month of 39.1 is also well above the historic average of 30.8 degrees and on track to break a record for the warmest average low temperature.
  The highest recorded January average low is the 38.7 degrees of both 1994 and 2006.
  An El Nino winter, which weather forecasters predicted we would have this winter, typically brings warmer than normal temperatures and drier conditions to the Northwest, while deluging California with precipitation.
  With warmer temperatures also comes less snow. Just ask the Mt. Baker Ski Area, which has had to close for periods this winter, or the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics organizers, who are being forced to truck in snow for some events at Vancouver’s Cyprus Mountain.
  There has only been one day of snowfall this winter season in Lynden, way back in December.
  E-mail Tim Newcomb at tim@lyndentribune.com.