The weekend's mild temperatures sure provided a welcome break from the otherwise pretty cold days of December - the coldest since 2000. They almost had me out there raking the last of the autumn leaves. But ... nah.

The mercury at BWI-Marshall Airport climbed to 59 degrees on Saturday, and 60 on Sunday. We reached 59.5 degrees here at The Sun's weather station, at Calvert and Centre streets. It was a reminder of the first day of December, which hit 62 at BWI before cold winter weather finally struck.

But January highs in the 60s aren't all that rare in Baltimore. We reached the 60s in January as recently as last Jan. 25, when it was 66 degrees - in the middle of the snowiest winter on record here.

The records for the 1st and 2nd are 67 degrees (2005) and 71 degrees (1876), respectively. We've reached the 70s on 22 of the 31 dates in January. The record high for Baltimore in January, at least since they started keeping records in 1871, was 79 degrees, on Jan. 26, 1950.

But let's not forget where we are on the calendar. January's daily cold records range from minus-7 degrees (on three January dates), to 8 above zero, on Jan. 7, 1988. The average snowfall for this month in Baltimore is 7 inches. The snowiest January day was Jan. 28, 1922 (23.3 inches). And the snowiest January was in 1996, with 32.6 inches.

(SUN PHOTO: Amy Davis, Jan. 6, 1997)