If you’ve lived in Allen County for more than five minutes, you know the drill. You check your phone, it says "partly cloudy," and ten minutes later you’re scraping a surprise layer of sleet off your windshield at the Meijer parking lot. Honestly, the weather forecast Lima Ohio residents deal with is a special kind of chaotic. It’s not just "Ohio weather" in the general sense; it’s the specific way the wind rips across the flat farmland of northwest Ohio, turning a "dusting" of snow into a whiteout on I-75.
Right now, we are sitting in the thick of January 2026. Today, January 15, things are looking pretty bleak if you’re a fan of the sun. We’re hovering around a high of 24°F, but with that steady west wind at 17 mph, the wind chill is biting deep—closer to 7°F. If you’re heading out tonight, expect the temperature to bottom out around 15°F or 16°F. It’s that dry, bone-chilling cold that makes your car seats feel like blocks of ice.
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The Clipper Coming for Your Friday Plans
Tomorrow, Friday, January 16, is when things get interesting. A clipper system is sliding down from Canada, and it’s got its sights set on the Great Lakes. For Lima, this means snow is a high probability—about a 60% chance.
Highs will actually "warm up" to the mid-30s, but don't get too excited. That warmth is just fuel for the snow showers. We aren't looking at a massive blizzard, but an inch of accumulation is likely. The real kicker? The wind. We’re talking gusts up to 30 mph. If you’re driving near the refinery or out toward Elida, watch for those crosswinds. They’ll turn a slushy road into a skating rink before the salt trucks can even get out of the garage.
By the weekend, the clipper moves out, but the cold moves in. Hard. Saturday and Sunday are looking clear but frigid. We’re talking highs barely hitting 20°F and nighttime lows dipping into the single digits.
What the 10-Day Outlook Actually Means
Looking further out into next week, specifically Monday, January 19 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), the "January Thaw" everyone hopes for is nowhere to be found. In fact, Monday might be the coldest day of the stretch, with a high of only 14°F.
Here is the breakdown of what to expect over the next week and a half:
- Tonight (Jan 15): Mostly cloudy, flurries possible, low of 16°F.
- Friday (Jan 16): Snow showers, high 34°F, wind gusts to 30 mph.
- Saturday (Jan 17): Partly cloudy and cold, high 29°F, low 14°F.
- Sunday (Jan 18): Sunny but deceptive, high 19°F, wind chills below zero in the morning.
- Next Week: Mostly overcast. A slight warming trend might hit by Wednesday the 21st, pushing us back toward the freezing mark, but another snow threat is looming for the following Friday, January 23.
Why Lima Weather is a Forecaster's Nightmare
Why does the weather forecast Lima Ohio relies on seem to change every three hours? It’s basically geography. We are in a transition zone. To our north, you have the lake effect influence from Lake Erie. To our west, there’s nothing but flat land all the way to the Rockies to stop the wind.
When a system moves through, it often teeters on the freezing line. A two-degree difference determines if we get a beautiful snowfall or that miserable freezing rain that knocks out power lines. According to historical data from the National Weather Service, January is statistically our cloudiest month, with overcast skies about 62% of the time. You basically won't see the sun again until February, or at least it feels that way.
The humidity also plays a weird role here. In the summer, it’s oppressive. In January, it stays surprisingly high—around 90% relative humidity. That "damp cold" is why 30°F in Lima feels way worse than 30°F in a dry climate like Denver. It gets into your bones.
Accuracy: Who Can You Actually Trust?
If you’re tired of being lied to by your default iPhone app, you aren’t alone. ForecastAdvisor, which tracks the accuracy of various weather outlets, consistently shows that for the 45804 and 45805 zip codes, The Weather Channel and Microsoft (Foreca) tend to have the highest hit rate, usually around 83-87%.
Local sources like the Lima Allen County Airport (KAOH) station provide the most "real-time" data, but for long-range stuff, the National Weather Service office in Northern Indiana (which covers our area) is the gold standard. They don't hype up "snowmageddons" for clicks; they just give you the atmospheric physics.
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Surviving the Rest of January 2026
We are currently in the literal coldest part of the year for Allen County. Historically, the last week of January is when we hit our absolute bottom.
- Check your tire pressure now. This 40-degree swing we just had from last week to today will trigger every "low pressure" sensor in town.
- Watch the wind chill, not the temp. On Sunday morning, the air temp might be 10°F, but the "feels like" will be -5°F. That’s frostbite territory for exposed skin in under 30 minutes.
- Prepare for the Friday morning commute. Since the snow is hitting Friday morning, the transition from wet roads to icy patches will happen right as everyone is heading to work.
The biggest misconception? That a "clear sky" in winter means it's getting warmer. In Ohio, a clear sky in January usually means an Arctic high-pressure system has moved in, and you’re about to experience the coldest night of the month.
Stay warm, keep a shovel in the trunk, and maybe don't wash your car until that salt-heavy clipper passes through on Friday night. The rest of the month looks like a typical Ohio grind: grey, cold, and unpredictable.
Your Next Steps:
Keep an eye on the Friday morning radar around 6:00 AM before you leave the house. If the clipper slows down, that one inch of snow could easily turn into two or three by the time the evening commute rolls around. Ensure your home's furnace filters are clean today; with the temperatures dropping into the teens tonight, your HVAC system is going to be working overtime.