New Year’s Day traditionally snowless, mild in DC
As the D.C. region breaks out of the recent icebox, those yearning for warmer weather may have something to celebrate on New Year’s Day.
When reviewing the past 32 years on Jan. 1 in D.C., 28% of those days saw rain. In recent years, the warmest day in January occurred on New Year’s Day.
In 2022 and 2019, the warmest day in January was New Year’s Day with highs in the 60s. Digging back through the records, New Year’s Day was the coldest day in January two decades ago in 1998 and 2002.
Snow has been scarce in the nation’s capital on New Year’s Day. The last instance was 28 years ago; it snowed one inch in D.C. on New Year’s Day in 1994. The most snowpack on the ground on Jan. 1 was in 1971 with eight inches measured at Reagan National Airport.
The warmest New Year’s Day in D.C. wasn’t too long ago. The mercury hit 69 degrees in 2005. However, the coldest New Year’s in D.C. was in 1968 with a low temperature of 12 degrees.
D.C. will ring in 2023 on a warm, wet note, so there’s no defying the recent climate trends. The District is already 1.7 inches below average for seasonal snowfall. The crux of the region’s winter occurs the next two months with an average of 4.9 inches of snow in January and 5.0 inches of snow in February.
Stay with WTOP and the weather on the eight’s to get the latest updates on the New Year’s weekend forecast.