BDL January Recap

Here is my recap of the January 2021 weather for CT focusing on Bradley International Airport (BDL). The month started fairly benign, though winter turned on for the end.

Temperatures

Consistent with what we saw for much of 2020, temperatures were warmer than normal this January. The month's mean daily temperature at BDL was 29.0 °F, when the January normal value is 26.1 °F, giving a departure from normal of 2.1 °F. Minimum temperatures were on the higher side, as the minimum temperature departure from normal was 3.6 °F and the maximum temperature departure from normal was 2.1 °F.

(NOAA Regional Climate Centers/xmACIS)

In the above chart, you can see the warm trend for the start of January at BDL, and it is clear how much things cooled for the end of the month. In fact, only a few days had low temperatures below normal, which you can see at the end of the month on the right hand side of the chart.

A typical January would have 2.4 days where the temperature would drop below 0 °F; this January, we had none.

Precipitation

We had 2.43 inches of total precipitation at BDL this January, when the normal value is 3.23 inches, giving a departure from normal of -0.80 inches.

(NOAA Regional Climate Centers/xmACIS)

The brunt of the precipitation came from a rainstorm on January 16, when we saw 1.62 inches. On most days, though, conditions were fairly dry.

Snowfall

It was an unfortunate January if you like snow, as BDL only saw 5.0 inches of snow, with a 0.5 inch liquid equivalent. 15 days saw at least a trace of snow, though virtually none of those days amounted to any snowfall accumulation. Our largest snowfall accumulation came on the 26th and into the 27th, when BDL recorded a total of 2.8 inches of snow.

While January was not too wintery at BDL, February should change that trajectory when the month wraps up.