Has it felt colder than normal to you this January? If you look at normal temperature records for Indianapolis, you'd find that it actually has been colder than normal.
You don't have to look far to see signs of the lingering cold across central Indiana, including the Canal in downtown Indy, which is partially frozen.
January is normally the coldest month of the year. In Indianapolis, we expect to see high temperatures near 36° for the month, and lows near 21°.
So far in 2025, our average high temperature for the month has been about 28°, and our low 13.6°, both running about 7 to 8° cooler than normal values.
Indy residents know all about the cold. Neeraj Yadu is training for a half marathon, and he won't let the cold stop him.
We asked Yadu if he liked the cold.
"Not at all. I don't like cold weather," he said. "I mean, the snow looks good, it looks pretty, but just for like two or three days. And after that, it chills my spine all the time when I go out."
For others, this cold is a whole new experience.
"I'm from South Africa originally, I arrived eleven years ago, and there was a cold snap then," explained Andrew Strever, who was out walking along the Canal. "Since then, it's been pretty mild. Having the Canal freeze over — I've never seen that."
This year, only three days have had above normal high temperatures. One day was at normal, and there were 19 days below normal high temperatures, leaving many feeling cold.
We are nowhere near record territory. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Indianapolis was -27° on January 19, 1994.
Typically, the third week of January is the coldest week of the entire year. Our coldest low of the year happens on January 21.
What does this mean? We are officially past the historically coldest time of the year.
As of now, this month is on track to become the seventh-coldest January in Indianapolis history.
We have not had a full month of January cooler than this since 1985, when the average high temperature for the month was 27.8°.
The coldest January happened in 1977, when the high temperature for the month averaged 19.5° for Indianapolis.
Winter and the cold temperatures are not done yet, but looking ahead to February, normal high temperatures for the month warm to about 41°, and normal lows are near 24°.
