High Temperatures
It was a pretty dramatic month, with two really warm weeks to start, and then one really cold week to finish off the year.
December 2017 set three records for recent (since 1996) warmest-Highs on the 7th, 10th, and 15th. The 10°C on the 12th came really close to breaking the all-time record of 10.6°C that was set all the way back in 1880, but it didn't quite make it.
After that, as we plunged into the deepfreeze we set three more recent records for coldest-Highs, on the 26th, 29th, and finally on New Year's Eve.
When we look at the numbers there were 17 Highs above freezing and 9 above 5°C, which puts 2017 up there with some of the warmest recent Decembers, like 2011 and 2002. 1999 is still the standout for warm, recent Decembers though, with 22 Highs above freezing.
But then on the cold side of things, the 7 Highs below -15°C and 3 below -20°C put 2017 down with some of the coldest recent Decembers, like 2012 and 2013. 2009 was probably that harshest recent December with 6 Highs below -20°C.
The average High for 2017 was -3.2°C, which is right in the middle, and that makes a bit of sense since this was both an extremely warm and an extremely cold month.
Low Temperatures
The Low temperatures look pretty similar, with 3 recent warmest-Lows earlier in the month, and then 3 recent coldest-Lows later on.
The City of Edmonton cancelled its outdoor New Year's Eve activities this year, and at 28.2°C this was the coldest New Year's Eve since 1984 which dropped to 29.3°C.
Looking at the numbers for the Lows, our month-end deepfreeze had 8 Lows below -20°C, including 6 below -25°C and 2 below -30°C. And that's pretty comparable with the coldest deepfreezes that we see here, in 2013, 2009 and 2008. The one big distinction about the 2009 deepfreeze was that it dropped all the way to -37°C on December 13th.
We won't talk about snow or precipitation too much today, because we'll be covering that as part of the 2017-in-Review.
But in December the International Airport recorded 2.8cm of snow. That made 2017 the Airport's 2nd least-snowy December ever, after 2014 with 2.4cm. Some other low-snow Decembers were 1997 at 2.9cm, 1982 with 3cm, and 1993 with 4.2cm.
January Highs
As we head into January, it's good to remember that on-average we get 11 days above freezing every January. Since 1999 there have been a few low years like 1999 with 4 days and 2005 with 5, but there are other years that have lots of "warm" days like 2001 with 25, 2012 with 17 and 2014 with 16.
January Lows
But on the flipside, January can also be a month for deepfreezes.
As of New Year's we're just finishing 9-straight days with Lows below -20°C, and of the 19 years shown here 11 of them had something similar to that in January. So Happy New Year!
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