A January thaw is very much in place across KELOLAND this week, with temperatures by day and by night trending well above average. The warm southwesterly flow aloft has been pumping this unseasonable air mass into KELOLAND, and it’s only going to strengthen as we head into Wednesday.
This week hasn’t been the only stretch this month that has featured warmer weather. In fact, winter’s chill has been largely absent since we started the New Year.
Here is a list of average 24-hour temperature readings through the first eleven days of the year.
This takes every average high and low temperature into consideration during this time. Now, take a look at what we’ve actually seen so far this month. If you break down the data to a day-by-day level, we can see just how warm it has been. Of the four stations shown, only Rapid City has observed a below-average day for temperatures…and it only happened once.
This unseasonable start to the month will continue through Wednesday, where a few record highs may be challenged West River. After that, we’ll try to flip the script and cool down for the second half of the month.
