More poetic meteorologists might choose "A Tale of Two Januaries" to describe the spectrum-spanning weather last month.

Temperature extremes from double digit below zero to spring-like readings, to the presence of several inches of snow to bare ground a few days later, seems to justify the title.

The month began cold, according to records maintained at the Cambridge Water Plant. The first seven days of the new year the mercury did not rise above the freezing mark.

Of those first seven days, the overnight low temperature settled into the negative range five days, including Jan. 1, when the thermometer bottomed out at 10 below zero.

The average overnight low during those first seven days was 2.7 degrees below zero.

Temperatures quickly rebounded however, reaching 35 degrees Jan. 8, followed by 38 degrees the following day and 53 degrees on Jan. 10.

The warmest day of the month occurred Jan. 11, when the mercury reached 65 degrees. The following day saw a 61-degree high.

And then temperatures plunged again, reaching only 29 degrees Jan. 13 — a 32 degree drop from the high the previous day — and remaining below the freezing mark until Jan. 19. Then, another warmup kicked in, and the third day of the month to break the 60-degree mark was Jan. 22.

The average daytime high temperature during the month slotted in at 36.8 degrees, the average overnight low at 17.3 degrees. The range between the highest high and the lowest low temperatures was 75 degrees.

In terms of snow, the year began at the Water Plant with 3 inches on the ground. This would gradually decline until Jan. 11, when observers recorded zero snow cover. The high temperature that day was 65 degrees.

Two days later 4 inches of snow fell. Additional snowfalls would raise that on-the-ground total to 7 inches by Jan. 17. But five days later the ground again was largely bare, the result of increasingly warmer temperatures culminating in a daytime high of 62 degrees on Jan. 22.

In terms of liquid precipitation, the 2.94 inches recorded last month was the most during January since 3.1 inches fell in 2009.

Though temperatures have taken a wild swing here lately, liquid precipitation has remained relatively constant. In fact, the Jan. 30 report of the National Weather Service’s Online Drought Monitor lists Ohio, along with Michigan and Rhode Island, as the sole states to be completely free of any drought conditions.

ddavis@daily-jeff.com