Hope Starts 2018 Cold

January 2018 has been a cold one. The Southwest Research and Extension Center, the official weather station for Hope has reported 6 mornings through January 17th with temperatures below 20. The first five days of the month saw lows in the teens. Since January 12th every morning low has been in the 20’s with the exception of January 17th which saw an official low of 4 degrees. While Hope usually gets a night or two of single digit temps, lows below 7 or 8 degrees are rare. As far as precipitation goes, the month has seen an official snowfall of 3.7 inches and official liquid precipitation of 2.11 inches. Normal for January is 4.15 inches. The warmest temperature recorded in 2018 locally has been 67 degrees on January 12th. Forecasts for this weekend call for more rain and warmer temperatures.