December 2015 and Year End 2015 Weather Summary
For the fourth consecutive month area temperatures were above normal,
again, well above normal. The wet, El Nino influenced weather pattern that
appeared in November continued on into December providing abundant
moisture that was fortunately, mainly rain.
The average daily high during December was 46.5, 5.5 degrees above
normal. The average overnight low was 29.0, 7.8 degrees above normal.
This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 37.8, 6.7 degrees above
normal. While it wasn´t the warmest December on record, it will go into the
record books as the fourth warmest December on record! The warmest
December was in 1957 when we had a monthly mean temperature of 40.2.
The coldest December on record was in 1983 when we had a frigid monthly
mean temperature of 13.6. That December an arctic cold front settled into
the region, coupled with abundant snow on the ground, it got cold and it
stayed cold. Right through Christmas it was below zero for 9 straight nights,
reaching as cold as -18 degrees. We went through a 72 hour period where
the temperature never got above zero. Finally on Christmas Eve day it rose
to 1 above and on Christmas Day we hit a balmy 17 degrees! Six years later,
1989, we experienced a similar pre-Christmas Arctic plunge and recorded
our all time coldest temperature of 21 degrees below zero. Quite a difference
from December 2015! There were four temperature records set in
December. The high of 66 on the 9th broke the old record high for that date
of 65 set in 1990. The overnight lows of 46 on the 9th, 42 on the 11th and 49
on the 22nd all broke new record high low temperatures for those dates.
Wet weather continued to grace the state during December. A big rain event
mid month doubled our monthly normal rainfall. Threats of a large snow
storm at the end of the month evaporated to less than an inch of snow as the
weather pattern moved further east and south bringing the area cold
weather, wind and not much more. Average December precipitation is 1.02
inches, which is typically our second driest month of the year. Junction City
recived 3.0″ and Milford Lake 3.24 inches. That made December 2015 our
third wettest December on record. The wettest was 2007, the year of the big
ice storm, when 3.88 inches of precipitation saturated and encased the area.
The second wettest December was in 2011 when 3.80 inches of rain fell. The
driest December on record was in 1976 when no measurable precipitation
was recorded. Snowfall this winter has pretty much been a no-show, at least
so far. 0.7 inches was recorded the end of December giving us the only
measurable snowfall to date. Normal for December is 3.7 inches and normal
snowfall season to date is 4.7 inches.
2015 will go down as a warmer and wetter than normal year. Yet most people
will probably remember it as a mild year. Eight of 12 months of the year were
warmer than normal. However, two of those four cooler than normal months
were our two hottest months of the year, July and August. February and May
were the two other months with below normal temperatures. The average
temperature for 2015 was 56.0 degrees, 1.7 degrees above average. An
ongoing trend has been daytime highs being slightly above average yet
overnight temperatures being significantly above average.
In 2015 we never had a temperature of 100 or higher or below 0. The highest
temperature for the year was 99 (June 20th and July 13th) and the lowest
was 3 degrees (January 5th, 9th, and February 1st). That gave us an annual
temperature extreme of only 96 degrees, the second smallest average
temperature extreme since reliable records were kept (1949). 1992 had a 95
degree temperature extreme (5 to 100). This is only the third time since 1949
that we´ve had a temperature extreme of under 100 degrees. Long term
average temperature extreme is 110 degrees. We have failed to go below
zero 11 times, however 3 of those were in the past four years. Seven years
since 1949 we have not exceeded 100 degrees during the course of the
calendar year.
Rainfall in 2015 seemed to be feast or famine. The first three months of the
year we received less than half of normal precipitation. The next three
months we were at 125% of normal, including over ten inches in the month of
June alone! From July through September we were back to 75% of average
and for the last three months of the year we were at 160%. Officially for the
year we received 35.85 inches of rain at Milford Lake and 38.89 inches of
rain in Junction City. Average annual precipitation is 33.15 inches. While the
10.23 inches of rain in May was well above normal, it was also well below the
record set in 1995 when 17.23 inches of rain fell. In fact, May of 2015 only
comes in at #8 for the all time wettest month of May (with reliable rainfall data
going back to 1931).
The snowfall season is considered October through May. While this season´s
snowfall totals are running well below normal, so did snowfall for the
2014-2015 season. Last winter we only received 7.2 inches of snow with no
event providing over 2 inches of snow. Average for our area is 18 inches of
snow for the season.
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Chuck Otte cotte@ksu.edu
County Extension Agent, Ag & Natural Resources