© 2026 ABC News

The U.S. felt widespread warmth during the month of January, which marks the third time ever that nation-wide temperatures were warmer than average, NOAA announced earlier this week.

\"January 2020 was the fifth-warmest January on record for the Lower 48 (aka \"the contiguous United States,\" or CONUS),\" according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate.gov.

The monthly climate update showed that in the last 20 years, warmer average temperatures recorded in this climate division is a rarity -- happening only two other times, in 2006 and 2012.

The first month of the year, on average, is the coldest of the year, but in 2020 a small handful of CONUS climate divisions were warmer than average.

\"The only climate divisions in the CONUS that were cooler than average were in eastern Utah and southern Colorado,\" the government agency reported. \"Alaska, meanwhile, marched to its own January drum, with colder-than-average temperatures across most of the state.\"

Although exact temperatures varied by latitude and elevation, January 2020 temperatures were above average for nearly every U.S. climate division of the Lower 48 states. https://t.co/2wIuFkmiE6 pic.twitter.com/GdawBRPSUh

— NOAA Climate.gov (@NOAAClimate) February 11, 2020

The average temperature over the 20th century was 30.12 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the only month of the year with a sub-freezing average temperature.

In the past three decades, NOAA reported that January temperatures have warmed significantly.

\"Averaged over the entire historical record (1895-2020), January temperature has increased by 0.2 degrees F per decade,\" NOAA climate.gov said. \"But in reality, virtually all of that change has come in the past 30 years.\"

\"PHOTO:
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
PHOTO: With unusually high temperatures in the mid sixties on a winter weekend, people enjoy spring like conditions in New York City's Central Park on Jan. 11, 2020.
>

With the exception of one month of the five colder-than-average Januarys, the average January temperature from 1991-2020 was recorded just above freezing at 32.35 degrees F.

ABC News' Max Golembo and Dan Manzo contributed to this report.

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