The year 2021 kicked off with a record-break­ing cold night in Trinidad and To­ba­go when the max­i­mum tem­per­a­ture cooled to 19°C at Pi­ar­co dur­ing the predawn hours yes­ter­day, Jan­u­ary 5, 2021.

T&T’s cold tem­per­a­tures were due to cold­er air from the north en­croach­ing on­to Trinidad and To­ba­go, in con­di­tions where the winds were most­ly calm, with pre-ex­ist­ing very dry con­di­tions and al­most cloud-free skies for most of the night. This is the low­est tem­per­a­ture record­ed at Pi­ar­co for Jan­u­ary or any oth­er month dur­ing the last decade, since 2011.

The last time Jan­u­ary had a min­i­mum tem­per­a­ture of 19.0°C was Jan­u­ary of 2010. Still, it is not un­com­mon for Jan­u­ary to pro­duce min­i­mum tem­per­a­tures be­low 20°C, giv­en that 50 of the 62 Jan­u­ar­ies, from 1960 to 2021, have pro­duced sub-20°C min­i­mum tem­per­a­tures. The low­est min­i­mum tem­per­a­ture on record at Pi­ar­co is 16.1°C, which oc­curred on the nights of Jan­u­ary 21 and 30, 1964, fol­lowed by 16.4°C on Jan­u­ary 28, 1976.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice 2021 Dry Sea­son Rain­fall and Tem­per­a­ture Out­look in­di­cat­ed, “Few nights dur­ing Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary are like­ly to be rel­a­tive­ly cold with min­i­mum tem­per­a­tures falling be­low 20°C.”