Rochester’s monthly snowfall total was about half a foot below average.

What You Need To Know

  • The temperature got as warm as 43 degrees in January

  • The Rochester Airport picked up a little less than two feet of snow

  • No records were tied or broken during the month

January marked the first full month of winter, and it featured a below-average amount of snow. 24 out of the 31 days saw some snowflakes flying around, but totals were generally less than two inches at a time.

In total, the Rochester Airport picked up 21.9 inches of snow, with the most falling on the 22nd when exactly five inches stuck. That was during the second lake-effect event of the month when snow off of Lake Ontario reached Rochester during rush hour.

The first lake-effect event occurred from the 17th through the 20th, but Rochester only saw several inches stacked up to the south and southwest of the city. Either way, that total of 21.9 inches for Rochester was 6.3 inches below average for the entire month. 

The snowfall deficit becomes more apparent once you consider the season as a whole. Rochester’s seasonal snowfall total stood at 33.6 inches at the end of January, compared to the average of 57.4 inches.

Even for the dry days, clouds had the upper hand, for the most part. Not a single day was fair, with three days being partly cloudy and the other 28 days categorized as cloudy.

Temperatures Were Fairly Mild

Temperatures weren't half-bad by January standards. Except for one day, the first three weeks featured above-normal temperatures before it felt a little more like winter to close out the month. 

The temperature averaged 27.9 degrees for the first month of 2021, which was 3.2 degrees above normal. Rochester got as mild as 43 degrees on January 15, which wasn’t even close to last January’s warmest day of 64.

There were only 10 days out of the month when high temperatures maxed out below that freezing mark of 32. The coldest day of the month was towards the end when Rochester topped out at 17 on the 29th.

Temperatures never even dropped off into the single digits for Rochester until the final week of January. The coldest low temperature was 3 degrees, and Rochester hit that on the 30th before a slight rebound of a low of 6 degrees on the 31st.

Follow Meteorologist Christina Reis on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!