January featured tropical air streaming northward along the Pacific coast into the southern Yukon and very cold Arctic air dominating the central and northern regions of the territory.

Consequently, there was a definite difference in the weather depending on where you lived, the Meteorological Services of Canada reported in its monthly climate review.

The snowfall line extended eastward from Haines Junction through Carmacks to north of Watson Lake.

South of this line, near-record snowfalls were recorded in January. Watson Lake received the most snow, recording 99.5 cm, with only January 1952 seeing a bigger snowfall, when 123.2 cm fell.

So far this winter, snowfall in Watson Lake has 2004-2005 as the fifth-snowiest year with 207.6 cm. The snowiest year, 1951, saw 225.0 to the end of January. Watson Lakers only have to go back to 1991 to see the second-snowiest, at 223.8 cm.

The largest storm, Jan. 17-19, saw 51.8 cm of snow dropped at the airport over the three days.

Watson Lake reached nearly three times the normal precipitation for the month the heaviest for the territory. North of the line, the Arctic air mass dominated, with temperatures running below normal for the month.

The cold air slipped down into the area encompassing Whitehorse eastward to Watson Lake for a short period, bringing those communities to below-normal temperatures as well.

The coldest temperature recorded in the territory was -56 C at the Ogilvie Highway station on the Dempster Highway. The warmest temperature was 7.5 recorded at Burwash Landing.

In Whitehorse, the temperatures at the airport see-sawed through January.

They started in the -30s range, rose to the plus range, then really dropped, followed by nearing the zero mark again and finally ending the month colder but near normal.

The warmest temperature was 2.5 recorded Jan. 5, while the coldest was -46.6 recorded on Jan 13.

Overall, the mean temperature of -19.9 was 2.2 degrees below normal for January.

Record lows were set Jan. 12, 13 and 14, when the temperature dropped to -44.5, -46.6 and -44.4, beating the record of -43.3 and -45.0 set in 1953, along with -42.8C set in 1974.

The real story was the snowfall over the month. The Whitehorse airport recorded 55.9 cm 236 per cent of normal for the month.

The total monthly snowfall was the second-heaviest since records began in 1942. However, for the winter period (October to January), it's only the seventh-snowiest, with 118.7 cm total compared to 1990/91, when ,to the end of January, there were 174 cm.

With 45 cm of snow recorded on the ground at January's end ,it was just the seventh-deepest.

The record occurred in 1972, when there were 86 cm on the ground.

All data came from Environment Canada.