Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, highs were in the mid to even upper 30s across Northeast Ohio. Hope you got to enjoy the seasonal temperatures, as it's going to be quite a while before we see anything close to average.
Typically, in January, we see some of our coldest temperatures of the season. Our record coldest temperature of -20° was set on Jan. 19, 1994, in Cleveland. So the cold is nothing out of the ordinary, but temperatures get up to or higher than 32° for days and days is something that's not as ordinary.
What do I mean exactly? A few days to a week below freezing happens during most winters, but seeing two weeks or longer without seeing 32° or higher is something that doesn't happen very often.
The longest stretch of seeing temperatures under 32° was set back in the winter of 1977, that year we had 38 straight days of not seeing the freezing mark. In 1985, we saw 34 straight days of being under 32°.
The longest period of not seeing 32° or higher in the 21st century was 22 days in 2007.
Thankfully, I don't think we'll see those types of numbers in 2026, but 10 days to two weeks will be possible in Cleveland as we end January and begin February.
The last two-week stretch of not seeing 32° or higher was the end of 2017 into the first few days of 2018, nearly ten years ago. The other two times Cleveland has seen two weeks under freezing were in 1945 and 1909.
Here's a look at the high-temperature forecast for the next seven days in Cleveland:
Stay warm and safe!
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