Coldest Air in North America Visits Minnesota in January

Saint Cloud January 2026 Weather Summary

Unlike the previous 2 winters, extremely cold air pushed from the Arctic Ocean to northwestern Canada and Alaska in late December. Then, the upper-level steering winds turned northwest to southeast, allowing the coldest air mass in the past 6 years to push into Minnesota during the second half of January. This cold cancelled out a very mild two weeks in early January (each day between January 2-16 was at least 15 degrees milder than average), so the overall St. Cloud January average temperature ended up being 9.6 degrees, 2.2 degrees colder than average. That cold ranked nearly in the middle of St. Cloud Januaries on record: 72nd coldest out of 145 Januaries).

This cold produced 10 straight sub-zero lows and 14 lows out of 15 to finish the month. Three high temperatures of zero or colder were recorded, including the -11 high on January 23, the coldest St. Cloud high since January 30, 2019. There were 3 straight days with a low of -20 or colder. including the -26 degree low on January 24. The last low colder than that was -27, set on January 21, 2025.

St. Cloud has now made it through 29 days with a sub-zero low (average 42.7 for cold season), 4 days with a high of zero or colder (average 4.3 days for cold season), and 4 days with a low of -20 or colder (average 5.4 days for cold season).

Coldest Period in a Few Years

There were back-to-back days when the temperature remained at zero or colder on January 23 and 24. The last time that St. Cloud had three straight days with temperatures below zero was during the week before Christmas in December 2022. There were also 3 scattered days with a high colder than zero in January 2022. The longest extreme cold period St. Cloud had in recent years was in February 2021. There were 5 straight days with temperatures colder than zero and 8 out of 10 days with a low of zero or colder.  There were also 3 straight days and 4 out of 5 with a low of -20 or colder. The coldest low was also -28. That's the coldest low since those last two days of January 2019, when the low last reached -30 or colder.

Still No Record Winter Cold Low in 11 Years

January 2026 set no record cold temperatures. The closest was the -11 high on January 23, within 5 degrees of the -16 record cold low. St. Cloud has not set a record cold low during the three winter months (December, January, and February) since February 27, 2014.

Drastic Effects of Cold, Snow, and Ice East of Rockies During Second Half of January

This cold penetrated to the Gulf Coast and Southeast after moving through Minnesota. the cold pushed the storm track well to the south, so two major storms, a snow and ice storm on January 23-26 and a Carolina snow storm at the end of the month, produced heavy snow and ice in areas not used to winter precipitation. The cold that followed the first storm had a large impact since the ice storm knocked out power to as many as a million customers, leaving several without heat during the cold. The death toll has climbed over 100 from the cold.

Little Precipitation or Snowfall in January

Neither the cold nor the mild period that preceded it allowed significant precipitation in Minnesota. St. Cloud's January 2026 melted precipitation total was only 0.18 inch, the 12th driest January in St. Cloud records. The fluffy snow produced from the precipitation resulted in 3.5 inches of snow, 5.3 inches below the January average. That has slowed the cold season snow total to 27.8 inches, 1.8 inches above average. Many areas in the Interior South have more snow on the ground than in Minnesota.

However, the lean snowpack will not affect the ground water situation in Minnesota, still hurting after the late summer and fall dry period. We will need major spring rainfall after the ground thaws to offset the dry conditions in the late summer and fall, especially to our north.

Cold Air Used Up....At Least for a While

The good news is that the coldest air in North America pushed into the middle latitudes in January. We had to suffer through it, but that kind of cold air has to sit in Arctic regions for at least a month to get that cold. There is no similar cold air mass in North America south of the Arctic Ocean (see dark blue on the 850 mb Alicia Bentley North America equivalent potential temperature map), so we will be free of the severe cold for much of February. And, the coldest air in the Northern Hemisphere is closer to Russia and Siberia than North America (see white on the 850 mb Alicia Bentley Northern Hemisphere equivalent potential temperature map).

January 2026 Statistics

Last Update: 2 January 2026