January 1
1993: Cyclone Kina passed between the Fijian islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, causing near-record rainfall of more than 1,000 millimetres (39 in) and killing 23 people.
January 2
1999: A blizzard brought up to 18.6 inches (47 cm) of snow to Chicago, its largest one-day snowfall total on record. The storm would bring heavy snow and record low temperatures to a large portion of the Midwestern United States and southern Canada over the next several days.
January 3
1999: A blizzard began dropping snow on the Midwestern United States, eventually disrupting travel and causing record low temperatures from Illinois to Ontario and Quebec.
January 4
1841: The steamship SS Thames wrecked in a severe winter storm in the Isles of Scilly southwest of Cornwall, England, killing 61 of the 65 passengers.
January 5
1998: Cyclone Susan reached peak intensity as a Category 5 storm on the Australian cyclone scale it approached Vanuatu.
January 6
2005: Tropical Storm Zeta finally dissipated over the open Atlantic Ocean, several days after it was forecast to diminish. It was the final storm of the hyperactive 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.
January 7
1987: A major cold snap began in the United Kingdom and Ireland, bringing temperatures as low as −23.3 °C (−9.9 °F) and up to 75 centimetres (30 in) of snow.
January 8
1988: Typhoon Roy passed near Majuro atoll, Marshall Islands, causing moderate damage across the island chain and killing one person.
January 9
1998: Cyclone Katrina, a long-lived South Pacific tropical cyclone that meandered east of Australia for more than three weeks, reached peak intensity northwest of Vanuatu, with 1-minute maximum sustained winds of 165 km/h (105 mph).
January 10
1998: A crippling ice storm came to an end after four days of freezing rain across parts of the Northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, resulting in more than $5 billion (USD) in damage from up to 5 inches (13 cm) of ice accumulation.
January 11
1898: A tornado killed 55 people in Fort Smith, Arkansas overnight. This is tied for the deadliest tornado in Arkansas state history.
January 12
1888: The Schoolhouse Blizzard resulted in the deaths of 236 people in the northern Great Plains.
January 13
1982: Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the Potomac River as a result of severe icing in a snowstorm, killing 78 people.
January 14
1888: A severe cold wave associated with a blizzard two days earlier reached its peak. The temperature reached −65 °F (−54 °C) at Fort Keogh in Montana, the second lowest temperature ever recorded in the Contiguous United States.
January 15
1968: A major extratropical storm struck the northern United Kingdom, bringing winds of up to 134 miles per hour (216 km/h) that damaged more than 70,000 homes in Glasgow alone. At least 28 people were killed.
January 16
1362: An unprecedented storm surge in the Netherlands resulted in Grote Mandrenke, Dutch for "Great Drowning of Men": at least 25,000 people were killed.
January 17
1977: Snow was reported for the first time in West Palm Beach, Miami, and as far south as Homestead, Florida.
January 18
2017: An avalanche destroyed a hotel in the town of Farindola in the Province of Pescara, Italy, killing 29 people.
January 19
2007: European windstorm Kyrill moved over the Baltic Sea towards northern Russia, after leaving a path of destruction from winds greater than 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph) across northern Europe. At least 44 people were killed.
January 20
1910: The Seine river overflowed its banks, marking the beginning of the Great Flood of Paris.
January 21
2006: The International Cloud Experiment, a scientific expedition to gather information on cirrus clouds in the tropics, began.
January 22
2016: A major blizzard began to affect the Mid-Atlantic region, ultimately resulting in all-time record snowfalls for a large portion of the United States.
January 23
1970: The TIROS-M weather satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 2.
January 24
1997: Cyclone Gretelle made landfall near Farafangana, Madagascar, killing 152 people.
January 25
2008: The first in a series of winter storms impacted China, beginning what would be China's most severe winter in half a century.
January 26
1980: Cyclone Hyacinthe dropped 1,095 millimetres (43.1 in) of rain in just 12 hours on Réunion, part of a historic 15-day period where up to 6,083 millimetres (239.5 in) of rain fell on parts of the island.
January 27
1998: Cyclone Les caused record flooding in Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, killing 3 people.
January 28
1922: The Knickerbocker storm, one of the worst blizzards ever to strike Washington, D.C., collapsed the roof of the Knickerbocker Theater, killing 98 people.
January 29
1984: Tropical Storm Domoina, a day after making landfall in Mozambique, began bringing record rainfall that would eventually total more than 900 millimetres (35 in) to Swaziland (since 2018 renamed to Eswatini) and parts of South Africa.
January 30
2009: A severe heat wave reached its peak in southeastern Australia, with nearly half of Tasmania recording all-time record temperatures as high as 42 °C (108 °F).
January 31
2019: The state of Illinois measured its coldest temperature on record: −38 °F (−39 °C) in the town of Mount Carroll. This was part of a major outbreak of cold weather across central North America which lasted for several weeks.