Frigid Weather to Return this Week

January traditionally features outbreaks of extreme cold weather in the Mid-Atlantic Region.  Longtime Washingtonians will remember January 1994 – the last time it was below 0!  It was -4 on January 19 and the high of 8 on January 19, 1994 was the second lowest high temperature on record in Washington, D.C.  January 1994 was so cold that there were four days where temperatures didn’t even reach 20 degrees at National Airport – the official weather reporting site for Washington, D.C. 

Then, in January 2004, there was a six-day stretch of below freezing temperatures.  Also, area residents likely remember how cold it was before and after Inauguration Day in 2009.  During that three-day stretch in 2009, ending January 17, the highest the temperature got was 29 degrees.

Last winter was especially cold and snowy for the Mid-Atlantic Region.  There were seven days in January 2014 when temperatures failed to get above freezing.  In fact, the high temperature last January 19 was only 19 degrees – less extreme than in 1994, but significantly below the daily average high of 43.

Such extreme cold can be largely attributed to the position of the jet stream – a river of air in the atmosphere that helps regulate the weather by guiding storm track and movement of air masses.  When the jet stream dives south from Canada during the winter months in the Eastern United States it helps drives very cold air southward.  This affects many of the populated areas of the Central and Eastern United States. 

Hopefully, you have been able to enjoy the relatively mild weather in the Mid-Atlantic Region today since the weather is going to take a dramatic change this week with the winter’s first sustained stretch of cold weather.  High temperatures will likely remain below 30 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday for much of the DC Metro Region.