Chicago is typically chill in January.

Maximum temperatures go down compared to the previous month from +37°F to +32°F. The minimum temperature also goes down from +27°F to +21°F.

Pack a jumper and a jacket as there will be cooler temperatures.

January is the coldest month in Chicago, here is the comparison with other months:

Water in Chicago in January is Cold. It varies from +37°F to +41°F, with an average of +39°F. Note that the air temperature is lower than the water temperature, averaging around +32°F.

The water temperature in January is one of the coldest of the entire year:

January weather is still as ok as in December. It’s getting colder in January. From +37°F in the day, the average maximum temperature lowers to +32°F. As January arrives, the amount of rainfall goes down. On average, the rainfall volume decreases from 43 mm to 24 mm. Humidity levels don’t change as the month goes on, averaging around 73%. The average wind speed doesn’t change much during January, staying around 4 m/s. The amount of sunny days stay about the same, averaging 3 sunny days during the month.

February brings much the same weather, it remains ok.

January is one of the snowiest months in Chicago.

Here’s how January is compared with other months in the amount of snow, total mm:

The climate in Chicago in January has not changed that much over the last 43 years.

The average temperature was the lowest in 1979 (+54°F) and the highest in 2024 (+63°F). The driest year was 2005 with only 501 mm of rainfall, and the wettest year was 2023 with 1535 mm.

For this page, we’ve looked at the typical weather in Chicago, based on historical hourly weather data from January 1, 1979, to December 31, 2023.

For past dates, we show actual recorded data at the location at that time. Forecasts are based on recorded weather during that day of the year, averaged over the total years for which we have records (unless stated otherwise). The daily temperature is the highest recorded temperature in the shadow during that day.