Weather in Aspen in January

The month to avoid. January is the month most people should skip in Aspen. Highs sit at -0.9 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

January ranks 9 of 12 in Aspen: past the worst of the year but short of June, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 10 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at -0.9 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 31 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 9.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -27.4 °C.

January is moderately variable: 14 mm in the driest year against 117 mm in the wettest, around an average of 48 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 3.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 91%, which at -0.9 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: -0.8 °C in December, -0.9 here, -0.8 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

January sits at the dark end of Aspen's year — 9.7 hours of daylight against 14.9 at midsummer, gaining 0.7 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 39.6 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 2405 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

January in Aspen versus nearby

If Aspen is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Denver is a better bet in January — 9.3 °C warmer, 5 days less rain. Moab is a better bet in January — 8.8 °C warmer, 4 days less rain.

So: January is a compromise. June is 71 points better and is what Aspen is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Aspen

See all twelve months in Aspen, or where else to go in January.