From what reliable site(s) can I find a list of geographic regions
that are hot or at least warm in January?  (I'm looking for usual and
unusual vacation spots.)

Hi,

I found a great resource: an interactive climate map from National
Geographic.  It shows average temperatures for January. The color
coding is pretty self-explanatory -- yellow is warm, red is hotter.

MapMachine
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/index.html?id=585&size=medium&left=-180&bottom=-90&right=180&top=90

By using the arrows and the zoom control, you can get a closer-up
view.

If you wish to see other map choices, use the menu at left.  For
example, to see the weather map for July, pick World Themes, then
Climate and Weather, then Temperature (July).

A place that lists January temperatures is here:

Average Daily Temperatures (°F) in Tourist Cities
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004587.html

Here's a place where you can put in the names of cities and find out
the climate:

World Climate
http://www.worldclimate.com/

Finally, check out the Wunderground:

Wunderground
http://www.wunderground.com

If you have a destination in mind, type it in the search box (either a
country name or the name of a U.S. city).  Then follow the links to
the page for a particular city.  For most (not all) cities, if you go
about a fourth of the way down the page there's a place where you can
check the weather on a date in the past.  Pick some January days from
previous years, and you'll get an excellent idea of not only the
temperature, but for many cities the precipitation as well.

I hope you find this useful.  Have a great trip!

Sincerely,

Mvguy-ga




Search strategy:

Google search term: "average temperature" world cities
://www.google.com/search?hl=es&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=%22average+temperature%22+world+cities&btnG=B%C3%BAsqueda+en+Google

I also browsed through this site:
http://weather.about.com

My brother and his wife came out to visit me last January. They
thought they'd gone to heaven, after arriving here.  Leaving a cold
dreary wet snowy icy climate in the Northeast US, and flying out to
Phoenix, AZ.  Every day was sunny and the temperatures never went
above 85 degrees with humidity levels around 7%.  Nights were cool,
but not cold.

Typical weather for Arizona in the fall, winter and spring!  All
touristy things they were able to do wearing shorts and sandals.  It's
hard to describe the beauty here.  Pictures don't do it justice. 
That's why we have so many snowbirds that come here in the winter. 
It's truly a sight to see and a climate that's almost perfect.

Best regards,
tlspiegel

Are you interested only in warm places in the USA? Australia and New
Zealand (and other places in the southern hemisphere) have their
summer through December, January, February and they are simple
gorgeous places to visit. Do a Google search of Australia and/or "new
zealand" and you'll see what I mean.