Austin records 3rd warmest start to January on record

January is, on average, our coldest month of the year.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Coming off the back of our eighth warmest December on record, Central Texas continued the warmth into 2023.

With records that date back to 1898, Austin just experienced the third warmest first week of January.

Average temperatures, which represent the highs and lows of the day, reached 63.9º for the first week of the year. Only two other years have started warmer at Austin's Camp Mabry: 1916 and 1989.

Warm during the coldest time of year

January is, on average, our coldest month of the year with an average temperature of 52.2º in Austin at Camp Mabry.

The typical coldest days of the year are from Jan. 2-14 where average highs are around 62º and average lows drop to 41º. These lowest averages of the whole year are based on the 1990-2020 climatological averages for Austin.

This helps to put our 2023 numbers into better perspective. While we should have had an average temperature close to 52º to start the year, we were almost a full 12º above normal.

Warmth will roll on

We're forecasting temperatures at, above, or well above normal for the next week and there are signs that won't change for a while.

The 8-14 day temperature outlook from the Climate Prediction Center exudes high confidence in warmer than normal temperatures continuing into the end of the month.

Of course, as we've been talking about for months, a La Niña winter in Texas typically brings warmer and drier than normal conditions to the area. So far that has held up.

On Thursday, January 12, we'll get an updated ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) forecast from the Climate Prediction Center that may be able to give us a better idea when we'll wrap up La Nina and look toward a neutral or El Niño weather pattern. Stay tuned...