January 17-23, 2001:

The Midwest continued to be dry the next week, January 17-23, although temperatures were cooler. The pattern of temperature departures from normal indicates that the southwestern half of the region was the most below normal in temperature, while northern and eastern border regions were the most above normal in temperature (Figure 11). The anomalies, though, were less than 5°F for the most part. Almost all of the Midwest, except for Kentucky, received less than 25% of normal precipitation for the week (Figure 12). A persistent zonal flow in the subtropical jet south of the Midwest steered most storms and moisture to the south of the region, allowing significant precipitation only in Kentucky. Of the snow that fell during the week of January 17-23 (Figure 13), most of the Great Lakes snow fell during a clipper system passage around the 17th, while the southeastern snow occurred on January 19-21. The liquid water equivalent precipitation for the Midwest during the January 1-23 period was less than 0.75 inches in most of the region (Figure 14). This resulted in growing concern about drought conditions returning to the Midwest for the second spring in a row. However, this concern was alleviated during the last week of the month.