Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today
HASTINGS — New Year’s Day ushers in the climatologically-coldest month of the year – January.
However, when examining weather over the past 120 plus years, one quickly finds that considerable variability often exists from one year to the next. Just in the last 30 years, New Year’s Day high temperatures in Grand Island have ranged from four to 61 degrees.
This story features a wealth of New Year’s Day weather and climate information focused specifically on Grand Island, where January weather records date back to 1896, official weather data recorded at Central Nebraska Regional Airport since 1938.
Temperatures: According to the entire period of record, the warmest New Year’s Day on record was 64 degrees in 1939 and the coldest low temperature was a bone-chilling minus 23 degrees in 1974.
Only 15-of-123 New Year’s Days on record, 12 percent, have featured high temperatures of 50 degrees or warmer, with the most recent one occurring in 2004 at 60 degrees.
On the other end of the thermometer, only 18-of-122 New Year’s Days, 15 percent, have featured highs of 15 degrees or colder, but interestingly, three of these have just occurred within the last six years, 2022, 2019 and 2018.
However, nothing in recent years has topped New Year’s Day in 1974 in terms of brutal cold, with a high of only two degrees and the record-setting low of minus 23 degrees.
Precipitation/Snowfall: As for wintry precipitation, there really isn’t anything “major” in the record books associated with New Year’s Day itself.
According to the entire period of record, only 26-of-123, 21 percent, of New Year’s Days have featured measurable precipitation. Although much of the local region was dealing with the aftermath of an historic ice storm on New Year’s Day 2007, nearly all the actual precipitation from that storm fell a few days prior, mainly Dec. 29-30, 2006.
Snowfall-wise, there are no major winter storms to speak of, with a daily total of “only” 5.4 inches in 1948 leading the way. Somewhat surprisingly, measurable snow has fallen on New Year’s Day only twice in the last 24 years, but one of these was just two years ago in 2022 when 1.5 inches fell.
For a few of the higher snow totals when combining New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day together, those two days in 1994-95 featured 6.2 inches of snow in Grand Island, with 3.0 inches falling on New Year’s Day 1995.
This 1994-95 snow event ranks as the second largest two-day combination of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day snow on record, trailing only 7.0 inches in 1931-32.
2023 New Year’s Day Recap: What a difference a year makes!
Following a bone-chilling and snowy start to the new year in 2022, the 2023 holiday was considerably milder, dry and otherwise uneventful. Following an early-morning low temperature of only 27 degrees, the afternoon featured a seasonably-mild high of 45 degrees, marking the warmest New Year’s Day in 14 years, since 2009.
Winds were also rather light, averaging no more than 10 mph out of the northeast for most of the day. About the only blemish to speak of was a decent amount of mid to high level cloud cover, with skies averaging partly to mostly cloudy.
