Climate Comment for January 2022: Coldest January Since 2014

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Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne

This was more like an old-fashioned January. The mean temperature was -8.1C, rivalling the -8.3C of eight years ago – though still warmer than the -9.8C of 2004 which was the record cold January for my station. Still, against the all-time record of -12.1C, set in 1918, we were almost balmy.

There were a number of records broken across Ontario. Timmins fell to -41.5C on January 15th and Sudbury sank to -34.8C on the 26th. Our coldest day was the 29th when Big Tub got down to -20C. It was distinctly colder away from the (still warm) lake – the airport recorded -23.2C.

Our warmest day was the 5th, at 2.2C. I’m not sure if that qualifies as our January thaw but if it did, it was short lived and pretty pathetic. We had no overnight lows above freezing.

Like the rest of Southern Ontario, our precipitation was well below normal at 38 mm against a norm of 69 mm. This all fell as snow, which accumulated rapidly as there were no real thawing spells. A very rough rule of thumb would suggest that 38 mm of moisture equates to 38 cms of snow. I think we got a bit more than that, but nothing like some areas of Eastern Ontario that got as much as 60 cms in just 12 hours during the storm that began on January 16th.

Ice in the Great Lakes grew much faster than usual. According to Environment Canada, coverage by mid-January is usually around 6% but this year it was at 24%. However, Lake Erie accounts for most of that as it was nearly completely iced over.

My subjective feeling of our January weather is that it was a see-saw – there were no extended periods of real cold and none of milder conditions. As the old saying goes, if you don’t like the weather, just wait an hour or two! As I write this on February 2nd we’ve just had few hours of above freezing conditions but the cold is already returning. And to top it all off, Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam can’t agree on how much longer winter will persist.

I rarely make forecasts, but I’m prepared to state that winter will end on March 20th at 11.33 am. Astronomically speaking, of course.