Some extremely cold weather quickly mitigated an overall warmer-than-normal stretch to open 2026, the last few weeks.

Ed Shimon at the National Weather Service in Lincoln indicates if it wasn't for the warm start to January, it very well may have ended up a top 10 or top 5 coldest month. 

According to Shimon, despite a couple of major snow events in January, it ended up drier than normal. Snowfall totals varied greatly from northern Illinois to southern Illinois.

Because of how cold it has been, any rain for the foreseeable future will likely result in runoff moisture because the ground is frozen. We'll have more with Shimon on that dynamic impacting drought locally later this week on Regional Radio.