January Rain

Back in November we looked at The Cold November Rain? to see just how frequently the International Airport received rain in the month of November.

Now it's January, and it's rained a little bit today. How often does the happen?

Here are all of the rain events at the International, going back to 1995. The Blatchford station tends to be warmer than the International and might get ran more often, but it doesn't break out rain vs. snow anymore so today we'll have to stick with the International.

We're just starting 2018, but 2017 recorded no rain in January. It's one of the relatively uncommon no-rain January's here, along with 1998, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2010 & 2011. Out of the 23 years here 16 had some rain, and 7 didn't.

2005 is the big winner here, with a total of 9.5mm, and both 2015 & 2016 recorded 4mm.

For a bit more context, here are the totals going back to the 1960s

This chart shows the monthly amount of rain as the blue bars, and then the total number of days with rain as the green. The 5-Year averages also appear as dashed lines to give a sense of how things have changed.

2005 with 9.5mm is the recent year with the most January rain, but 1971 beat that with 10.9mm, and 1965 came close with 9.4mm. And because of a string of rainy January's in 1965, 1968, 1969 and 1971 the 5-Year average was highest in the early 1970s.

For January with most rainy days 2015 is the leader, with 7 rainy days and a total of 4mm. The next closest is 2005 with 5 days.

The frequency of rain in January has changed a little bit over the years. In the 1960s & 1970s there were 9 January's with no rain, in the 1980s & 1990s it was 11, and since 2000 there have only been 6 (with only one more potentially in 2019).