MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AS OF JANUARY 2026 

Air temperature

Relatively warm weather that prevailed in the ETR at the end of December 2025 retained there in the first decade of January 2026, except for the northern regions. New daily air temperature maxima were even recorded in the south. At the same time, the weather became notably colder than normal in the Leningrad, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Regions as well as in the Republics of Komi and Karelia: there, air temperature anomalies in the first decade were -2…-12°. Abnormally cold air also reached the Arctic region of Russia all the way from the Kola Peninsula to Yakutia. The rest of the country was in warm climatic conditions during the first decade, with anomalies up to +4…6° or higher in the southern Urals and in Siberia, and up to +2…4° or higher in the north of the Far East. Meanwhile, the weather in the south of the Far East was slightly cooler than usual.

In the second decade, warmth manifested itself in the Russian North, raising anomalies to +2-3° or more degrees. In the north of the Far East, they also increased to +4-6° or higher, but the rest of Russia submerged into colds: e.g., daily temperature minima were observed in the south of Siberia (the Altai Territory, the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Kemerovo and Novosibirsk Regions, and the Republic of Buryatia). Frosts reached as low as -45° in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, -44° in the Altai Territory, and -48° in the Irkutsk Region. No such colds have been seen there in the last 75 years. Frosts below -25° were recorded in Moscow, and below -20°, in the Crimea. The decade-averaged air temperature in the Urals and in Siberia was 6-12° below the normal value.

In the third decade, the warm weather in the Far East excluding Primorye became yet warmer, and the cold weather in the rest of Russia, yet colder. The decade-averaged temperatures in the east of Yakutia, in the Magadan Region, in Chukotka and in Kamchatka were 4-15° above normal, and the regions of anomalies of the same size but of the opposite sign were formed in the rest of Russia, save for the southernmost ETR, to result in frosts down to -40° in the Urals, to -47° in Trans-Baikal, and to -50° in Evenkiya. At the same time, the thermometer readings rose to almost zero degrees in Chukotka where new daily temperature maxima were recorded. In the last days of January, the record-breaking heat visited the Crimea for the second time in a month, leading to new daily temperature maxima, similar to what happened in the Stavropol Territory.

As a result, the monthly-averaged air temperature in the north of the Far East exceeded the normal figure by 2-8°. In eastern Yakutia and in Kolyma, January 2026 was the warmest in the history of meteorological observations since 1891. Whereas in Central Russia, such a cold January was observed for the third time in the first quarter of the 21st century, after 2006 and 2010. As for the entire Russia, this January was half a degree colder than normal.

In eastern Eurasia, January 2026 can be considered an abnormally warm month, yet with a specific pattern of anomalies: the monthly-averaged air temperature anomalies were positive in most of China, exceeding 2° in the north and west of the country, but were negative in the north-east, as in the Korean Peninsula and in Japan. Warm air that came to China in mid-month updated numerous daily temperature maxima.

The monthly-averaged air temperature in the countries of South-East Asia was close to normal, with weakly-positive anomalies in Myanmar and weakly-negative ones in the rest of the region. 

A similar picture was observed in South Asia. The monthly-averaged air temperature was slightly higher than normal in most of India, but a bit lower than that in the north of the country and in neighbouring Pakistan.

Temperatures in the Near and Middle East were about normal.

In Central Asia, this January was very warm: record-high temperatures were measured at many points across the region, and the monthly averages were 2-4° above normal. But in northern Kazakhstan, frosts reached -35…-40° on occasional days, and new daily minima were recorded.

The weather in North Africa was notably warmer than usual. There, this January became the third warmest in the history of meteorological observations since 1891, after the record achievement of 2010 reproduced last year again.

In Europe, the weather was cold, with frosts down to -20…-30° in the Baltic countries and in Belarus in the east of the continent. Moreover, those frosts persisted for a week or even longer. The monthly-averaged air temperature was significantly below normal in the northern part of the continent: 2-6° below in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia as well as in the Czech Republic, and 2° below across the entire continent. This January in Finland was the coldest in the past thirty years.

In Canada, the average air temperature was 2° above normal in spite of a uniform distribution of heat. The weather was considerably colder than normal in the west of the country as well as in neighbouring Alaska (with -2…-6° anomalies), but was considerably warmer in the east. To be precise, this concerns the Arctic region only: the monthly-averaged air temperature in the rest of the country was approximately normal. In the USA, this temperature was also close to normal: slightly below normal in the east, and slightly above in the west, 2° above in the Rocky Mountains. In the states of Oregon, California, Utah, Arizona, Washington, Nevada and New Mexico, the monthly-averaged air temperatures were close to record-breaking values, frosts reaching -40° in the north of the country. In Greenland, this January was the warmest in the history of observations.

In the Arctic, the month was among the top five warmest in history, with the monthly-averaged air temperature anomaly in excess of 2°.

The monthly-averaged air temperature in the Northern Hemisphere calculated to an accuracy of 0.1°C was the seventh warmest on record. The leadership still belongs to January 2025.

In Moscow, the average January temperature was -8.2°, equal to 2° below the normal value.

Sea Surface Temperature

This January, the neutral phase of the Southern Oscillation was still active in the Pacific Ocean. At the equatorial latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, weakly-negative SST anomalies were observed, but in some water bodies of small area they reached -0.5°. At the temperate latitudes and in the west of the tropical and subtropical latitudes, positive SST anomalies reaching +2…3 or more degrees took place, probably allowing the average SST in the Northern Hemisphere to become a second maximum yielding only 0.1° to the record-breaking value measured in January 2024. In the Sea of Okhotsk, in the Bering Strait and in the Gulf of Alaska, abnormally cold water was observed.

As for the Atlantic Ocean, its average SST anomaly was the same as last December, and was smaller than in any other January of the previous five years. Positive SST anomalies were observed in the west of subtropical latitudes as well as around Greenland, in the Greenland Sea and the Barents Sea in the north, while in the rest of the Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere, the SST was close to normal, or was above-normal in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

Precipitation

With the exception of the North-West Federal District where the total monthly precipitation was sub-normal, the excess of precipitation above the normal value was apparent in the ETR. During the month, heavy snowfalls repeatedly covered the central part of the country and its southern regions, adding up to 30-50 cm of freshly fallen snow per day in places. In the Central Federal District, the monthly precipitation totals in all constituent entities of the Federation were above-normal: more than three times above in the Ryazan Region, two times in the Ivanovo, Vladimir, Lipetsk, Tambov, Kursk and Belgorod Regions, and one and a half times in the Kostroma, Kaluga, Tula, Orel and Voronezh Regions. The same picture was observed in the Volga Federal District where the normal values were overridden by two times in the Republics of Mary El, Mordovia and Chuvashia as well as in Nizhny Novgorod and Penza Regions, or by one and a half times in the Kirov Region and in the Republics of Tatarstan and Udmurtia. In the southern regions of the ETR, the precipitation figures were 1.5 times the normal values in the Luhansk and Donetsk Republics, in the Vologda and Rostov Regions, in the Krasnodar Territory and in the Republic of Adygea.

In the Urals, precipitation was close to normal. In Siberia, the snowfall amounts were markedly lower than normal in the north (in Taimyr and Evenkiya) and close to normal in the rest of the region, with the exception of Tyva and the area around the Baikal, where the monthly precipitation totals were 1.5-2.0 times above the normal figures.

In the Far East, the shortage of precipitation was observed in Chukotka and Primorye, while in the rest of the region, precipitation was normal. However, snowfalls during some January periods were very heavy: e.g., in the middle of the month, they buried Kamchatka with snow, bringing up to 70 mm of water-equivalent precipitation in two days to the capital of the Territory with the resulting snowdrifts up to two metres high. Prolonged snowfalls were also observed in the Khabarovsk Territory and on Sakhalin.

East Asia was mostly dry in January. In China, the monthly precipitation totals in many locations did not exceed 10% of the normal figure, to render this month truly torrid by local meteorologists. Heavy rains pelted on the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan; there, up to 65 mm of snow fell in a couple of days during the snowstorm to set a new January high for the entire period of meteorological observations.

The weather in the continental part of South-East Asia was dry, the rainy season continuing in Indonesia and in the part of Malaysia on the island of Borneo. There, rains caused floods that were reported to raise the water level on the roads above half a metre in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

In India, heavy rains in the dry season came rather unexpectedly, but the weather in Pakistan remained dry.

In the Near East, precipitation was abundant in the north-western territories. Snowfalls occurred in Turkey. Almost no rain fell in the Middle East.

Rainfall in Central Asia was moderate. At the beginning of the month, snowfall covered Almaty, the height of freshly fallen snow exceeding 20-40 cm.

In North Africa, rains fell in the northern regions only, e.g., in Morocco they continued for several days in a row, causing floods. Torrential rains, the heaviest in seventy years, pelted in Tunisia, bringing the record-high precipitation amounts, and setting new daily maxima of precipitation totals. In some places, up to 200 mm of atmospheric moisture accumulated in a couple of days. Floods were also observed there.

In the European continent, ample precipitation took place in its western and south-eastern parts, with the monthly totals two or more times above normal. In western Great Britain, rain fell almost each day, resulting in floods. This January became the wettest in the history of observations in Northern Ireland, and the second wettest, in Dublin, its capital. In Albania, intense rainfall at the beginning of the month caused major flooding that deluged thousands of hectares of agricultural land. Heavy snowfall occurred in Bavaria in part of Germany, and was reported to be very rare in January.

Normal or above-normal precipitation was measured across nearly all of Canada. Snowfalls that were called the heaviest in decades hit the south and east of the USA from Texas to North Carolina; there, the height of freshly fallen snow reached 50 cm in some places, and the normal monthly precipitation figures were exceeded by two to three or more times. Still, atmospheric moisture in most of the US was sub-normal. In the Dominican Republic, heavy downpours led to floods.

This January in Moscow was the snowiest in the history of observations. The monthly precipitation total in water equivalent terms was 101 mm, the highest value for January in the meteorological annals of the capital since 1891.