January is best chance for snow in Seattle

If the Seattle area is going to get snow sometime during the year, January is the month.

Since 1948, January has the greatest number of days with snow on the ground. Looking at specific dates, the 2nd, 8th, 10th, 18th, and 23rd have had snow seven times. Twelve other January dates have had snow six times.

January also tends to be our coldest month of the year.

There have been some good snowy Januarys. For instance, January 1950 was one of the coldest and snowiest on record. The average temperature for the entire month was only 24.6 degrees, over 16 degrees below average, and 57.2 inches of snow fell that month. The all-time record low temperature in Seattle is zero degrees, set on Jan. 31, 1950.

Another snowy January was in 1969 with 45.4 inches of snow that fell during the month. The average temperature that January was 33.1 degrees. There are other Januarys with healthy snowfall – 1954 had 20.0 inches, 1972 had 14.0 inches, 1980 had 8.8 inches while 2012 had 9.6 inches that also included some freezing rain, as well.

The lowlands of western Washington have already had a taste of cold weather this winter and a bit of snow in December.

Rain is back in the forecast for the rest of this week, but no snow. The outlook for the rest of this month and February has even odds on above or below average temperatures and precipitation.

The mountain snowpack is well behind average at this point, but some snow is expected through this weekend.

There is a lot of winter ahead of us. So keep an eye on the weather forecast at www.weather.gov/seattle/ and be prepared for snow, whether in the mountains or in the lowlands of western Washington.