Weather at the end of January?

[purple250]

Hey everyone,

My husband and I just rented points for the end of January. I've never been to Disney at this time. Generally what is the weather like? Is it really cold? Is it possible to go swimming?

 

[robert@dvcstore]

January weather in Orlando could go either way. The average temperature is around 60. It could be cold enough where you would need a coat and gloves or it could go the other way and warm enough to enjoy swimming. Either way, you're bound to have a great time.

 

[mrebuck]

Weather in January can be hit or miss.

We were at WDW this past January, the last week of the month (1/25/09 to 2/1/09) and we were very lucky. The weather was awesome. We went swimming several days. BUT . . . the week before and the week after our vacation, the weather was awful. I have friends who were there in the weeks surrounding our vacation and they say they will never do it again. It rained most days and was very cold.

 

[permavac]

I second the "never again" in January. We have gone 3 times in the January/February time frame and each time we've experienced mostly cold weather with a day or two of warm temps. Who knows - maybe it was just our bad luck. We were there a few years ago in February during record low temps - below 30 degrees - and of course we had left our coats at home. This past year we were also there the last week of January and the weather was good but we were also there the week after and froze - in the sunshine. If you go prepared and bring your coats and hats it may still be a great experience for you. For me and DH, we are vacationing from Michigan and we've decided that from now on we need to go someplace where we are guaranteed to get warm weather in January because we can freeze at home

Terri

 

[ssawka]

We've gone the past 2 years the week of MLK. The first year the weather was fine, sunny with highs in the 60's and 70's. This year however was very cold. At least one day was in the 40's. DD almost froze when we were watching Illuminations. Our last day was in the 70's so at least we got one day of swimming. We are going the end of Jan this year, my wife said if it gets that cold again we are never going back in Jan. This time we didn't have much of a choice, because we are joining DVC and I wanted my first trip to be "home" (BLT) and I knew it was unlikely that I would get an MK view for the fall. We may try October/November next year, unless we can get HHI in August.

 

[purple250]

Yikes in th 40s?!?! I hope this isn't the norm. Hopefully, we will get lucky and it will be in the 60s or 70s.

 

[ssawka]

Yikes in th 40s?!?! I hope this isn't the norm. Hopefully, we will get lucky and it will be in the 60s or 70s.

No, the weather people did say that that was the coldest it's been in Florida in years. The entire east coast was having a freeze that week. One thing that was amazing to witness however was how fast the Disney Landscape Team replaced all the flowers the next morning.

 

[cjb-nc]

I've been to WDW in Jan 2001, 2004, and 2008. In all three cases we had some jacket days and at least one day warm enough to swim. As has been said, it's hit-or-miss.

 

[Pakey]

We've been in January for 10 of the past 11 years, we either go the 3rd or 4th week of the month.

One year, 2001, was very cold every single day. Yes, we live in CA and aren't used to it, but we definitely wore hats, coats and gloves every day. After dark, it was unbearable.

This year, 2009, was very warm. We swam every single day of the week.

2008, it was cool enough to be unable to swim at all but it wasn't uncomfortably cold except for one day.

All other years, we have generally had one day out of the week that was warm enough to swim and/or go to whichever water park was open (in Jan only one of the two waterparks is usually open). Hardly ever has there been more than one nice day within a 7 day vacation.