With a h/t to @climatologist49 on Twitter, the just completed month of January was one of the most variable on record for Iowa and elsewhere. Where this variability is measured by the standard deviation of the daily high temperatures for the month as shown by the featured chart for the central Iowa averaged climate district. The year of 2018 comes in slightly ahead of 1942. This variability can be thought of as having a number of very warm days along with a number of very cold days for the month. February has continued this trend a day already in the 40s and one today in the teens for highs.

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Tags:   jan18