It was a cooler end to last year and a cold start to 2013.We started off December of last year very mild, with 5 days within the first 10 days of the month having highs in the 70! That was continuing our mild trend that we had seen through much of the month of November. But by mid December we began to see a more active weather pattern. This would eventually lead to much cooler, followed by colder weather for the borderland. Average high temperatures for December range from 60 degrees at the beginning of the month, then dropping to an average high around 56 degrees by the end of the month. But the last 5 days of December were below average, which was a trend we would see last into an even colder January.

And January was cold! With an average high of 56 degrees to start the month, we saw the first 6 days of the month with highs only in the 30s and 40s! According to the National Weather Service since record keeping began this was the 7^th coldest start to any year for El Paso. And we had snow to go along with the cold. Around the 10^th of January we did see a high of 60 degrees, but another shot of cold air would follow with highs again stuck in the 30s and 40s from the 12^th through the 16^th of the month. That second cold snap was the result of a large through of low pressure that brought cold Canadian air all the way down into Mexico. That cold snap also affecting Phoenix bringing the coldest temperatures in at least two years with lows in the upper 20s! California feeling the chill too, with a low of 34 degrees in Los Angeles, it was the coldest temperature in downtown since December 23^rd 1990! So far in El Paso for the month of January we have only seen 3 out of the last 17 days with highs at or above average! We will see a warming trend however through the upcoming week.