A cold January across the state but temperatures warm early February

Only two days in January 2020 saw “above normal” high temperatures in Anchorage. February will break that trend in the first week.

January 2020 was cold—it wasn’t your imagination. It came in as the eighth coldest January on record and the 14th coldest month on record. It was also the first month in 22 consecutive months that the average temperature was below normal. The last time Anchorage saw a below normal temperature month was February 2018.

The coldest temperature reached was 11 below on January 6 and 8. No record low or high temperatures were reached. Anchorage saw two record snowfall days: Jan. 1 with 6.2 inches of snow and Jan. 20 with 2.6 inches of snow.

January was cold across the state. Fairbanks so its coldest high temperature of any January on record when temperatures hit 4 degrees on Jan. 15. That still made January 2020 the 17th coldest January on record.

Utqiaġvik hit 40 below for the first time in 2919 days, Sunday morning at 8:51, according to the Fairbanks National Weather Service.

The cold continues across northern and interior areas but Southcentral and Southwest will warm up starting Sunday and continue through most of the week, with daytime highs in Anchorage expected to high the upper 20s and low 30s. The front swinging through Southwest and Southcentral on Sunday will swing into Southeast on Monday.