News Photo by Steve Schulwitz LaRae Rutenbar, left, plays ball with Lilly, center, and Luke while at the dog park in Alpena Tuesday. The weather in Alpena approached 40 degrees, but the cold is expected to roll back in later this week. Forecasts show that the area will also avoid the large snowstorm predicted for the southern portion of the state.

ALPENA — People in Alpena may have needed to wear an extra layer of clothes while outdoors in January because of the cold, but they also needed to do less shoveling and snow blowing than usual.

The National Weather Service says the average temperature for last month was 6.1 degrees colder than average. The area also received nearly five inches less snow than the long term average.

The normal average temperature for January is 20 degrees, but the month ended Monday with an average temperature of 13.9 degrees. A pair of extreme cold spells to close the month pushed the average down when below zero temperatures swept through the region.

The low temperature for the month was recorded at the Alpena County Regional Airport on Jan. 16, when the thermometer dipped to minus 13.

The warmest day in January was three days later, when the mercury climbed to 38 degrees.

Andy Sullivan, a meteorologist of the National Weather Service, said the departure from the average normal temperature is significant. He said a difference of three degrees is a significant difference from the norm, and six is quite drastic. He said the unseasonably cold weather in the second half of the month is what caused the average temperature to fall as much as it did.

“There were a lot of cold nights where it was in the single digits and then we had that cold spell where it was below zero,” Sullivan said. “It really pushed the averages down.”

Sullivan said the cold pushed weather systems that are better equipped to produce snow south, so that limited how much snow fell. He said the fact that Lake Huron is pretty much frozen over limits the amount of lake effect snow that is generated, which also impacted the low snow total.

The area received a total of 14.4 inches of snow in January, well below the norm of 19.3 inches.

The largest accumulation was on Jan. 5, when Alpena received 3.1 inches of fresh snow, followed by 1.7 inches the following day.

Sullivan said looking out two weeks, there aren’t any large snow events predicted by the forecast prediction models, at least right now.

After a warmer day today, temperatures will slide again later this week, as another cold front moves into northern Michigan.

“It looks like it is going to be more of the same, but a little warmer after we get through the weekend. Not warm, but closer to average,” he said. “We don’t see any big snow system, just a few small Alberta clipper systems that could bring flurries to the Alpena area. We don’t see anything indicating a large storm.”

The Alpena area is forecasted to be spared a winter storm expected to drop nearly a foot of snow in the southern part of Michigan beginning Wednesday and lasting until Friday. There is a chance of light snow showers today, but little accumulation is expected.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.