Illinois State Climatologist
Official account for the Illinois State Climatologist Office. Based at the Illinois State Water Survey and Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
go.illinois.edu/climatologist
- January in Illinois was cold, snowy, and dry... thanks to abundant but powdery snowfall. Du Quoin had 19.5" of snow last month, which is 500% of their snowfall normal. Yet, Du Quoin was 2" drier than average last month with only 0.97" of total precipitation. 1/2 go.illinois.edu/scosummary
- Why did so much snow yield so little precipitation? The cold air limited the amount of liquid water in the snow. We had snow-to-liquid ratios of 20:1 last month, which is more like the champagne powder of Colorado instead of the normal Midwest slush. 2/2 See: mountwashington.org/snow-to-liqu...
- So, it's still really dry across Illinois. January brought snow, but not so much precipitation to give us some relief. To give some idea of how dry it's been since August... the last 6 months is the 5th driest of any 6 month period on record in Bloomington-Normal, with only 7.10".
