Temperatures warmed nicely on Thursday and with the slightly lengthening days, perhaps some of you were starting to dream of spring! Of course, we very much have a majority of the winter season yet to come and the near term forecast has the coldest air of the season arriving this very weekend. Today's featured chart checks in on the observed temperature range during January for Ames. The top panel shows the yearly maximum high temperature, middle panel presents the minimum low temperature, and finally the bottom panel shows the difference between the two (the range). Each dataset is fit with a simple average and a trailing 30 year average. Thanks to the lack of significant warmth and cold this year, the range is currently near the lowest of what has been observed on record. January is only half over, so there is plenty of time for each extreme to be exceeded and the range increased.

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