Prepared by Florida Climate Center
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

Summary:

• Monthly mean temperatures in January averaged out to near normal across Florida.
• Monthly precipitation totals in January were below normal across Florida, with two rounds of wintry precipitation during the month.
• Drought conditions persisted or deteriorated in Florida during January and 94% of the state was in some level of drought (D1-D4) by month’s end.
• A La Niña advisory continued in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and a transition to ENSO-neutral is expected during January-March 2026 (75% chance) that will likely persist through at least spring 2026.

Table 1. January average temperatures and departures from normal ( ̊F) for select cities.

Figure 1. Monthly average temperature departures from normal (°F) in Florida for January 2026.

Table 2. January precipitation totals and departures from normal (inches) for selected cities.

Figure 2. A graphical depiction of the monthly rainfall departure from normal (inches) for January 2026 (courtesy of NOAA, NWS).

La Niña Advisory.

As of mid-January, the tropical equatorial Pacific Ocean remained in a La Niña state. Below-average sea surface temperatures continued across the east-central region of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Subsurface temperature anomalies became slightly positive, and atmospheric anomalies across the tropical Pacific remained consistent with La Niña. A transition to ENSO-neutral is expected during January-March 2026 (75% chance). ENSO-neutral is likely to continue through at least the Northern Hemisphere late spring 2026. The probability for an El Niño increases (48%-51% chance) beyond the May-July 2026 timeframe.

Hazardous Weather Events in January.

According to the Local Storm Reports issued by the local National Weather Service offices serving Florida, there were 199 individual local reports of hazardous weather events recorded across the state during the month of December (see Table 3 for a breakdown by event type). There were many reports of snow and strong wind gusts that caused damages due to downed trees and power lines.

Table 3. Breakdown of storm reports submitted in Florida during the month of January (compiled from Iowa State University/Iowa Environmental Mesonet).

Daily Record Events in January.

Table 4. Summary of daily records broken or set in Florida in January 2026 (source: NCEI Daily Weather Records).

Drought-Related Impacts.

By mid-month, drought continued to affect nearly all of Florida with 92% of the state in some level of drought (D1-D4). Drought conditions have caused some harm to agricultural pasture conditions, elevated fire risk, and decreased streamflows and some reservoir levels. In mid-January, approximately 5% of the state was in extreme drought (D3), 50% was in severe drought (D2), and 37% was in moderate drought (D1); about 8% of the state was abnormally dry (D0), according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. By the end of the month, approximately 14% of the state was in extreme drought (D3), 60% was in severe drought (D2), 20% was in moderate drought (D1), and 6% of the state was abnormally dry (D0) (Figure 2 below).

As of January 31, the Lake Okeechobee water level was 12.77 ft. above sea level (Feet-NGVD29), which is below average for this time of year. At the first of January, the water level was 13.33 ft. above sea level.

Figure 3. A graphical depiction of the latest drought conditions in Florida according to the U.S. Drought Monitor (courtesy of the National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln).

Agriculture-Related Impacts.

Appendix 1
Additional January departures from normal data for select Florida locations (source: NWS).

Appendix 2
Select daily record low minimum temperatures tied or broken during January (compiled from NOAA).