Iowans are used to wild weather extremes in the wintertime but going from balmy highs in the 60s to wind chills of minus-60 over several days is radical, even for the Hawkeye State. State climatologist Justin Glisan says the month of January started out quite warm and stayed that way -almost- through the end.

It was almost like somebody roused a dozing Mother Nature from her slumber last Sunday and reminded her it’s supposed to be winter in Iowa — and she overreacted a bit.

Overall, the statewide average temperature for January was 18-point-five degrees, about one-degree below normal.

As for precipitation, it looks like Iowa is a tad bit above average for rainfall/snowfall across the state. Precipitation for January statewide averaged one-point-32 inches, which is four-tenths of an inch above normal.