This will not be quite as detailed as some of the monthly recaps, because in the next few days we will also have the big 2019 Year-in-Review, and that will cover a lot of the big-picture stuff.
High Temperatures
Here we have the High temperatures throughout December 2019. It was a mild month, with the Highs sticking fairly close to the average. There were a few cool~ish days around the middle of the month, with the 13th at -14.9°C. And to end the month we had a few warm~ish days like the 29th at 2.9°C and the 31st at 6.1°C. The very warm New Year's Eve set a new warmest-in-30-years temperature, but other than that the Highs we were not very close to the 30-year extremes (the orange & blue areas) or to the records (the thin orange & blue lines)
Looking at the bargraph at the bottom of this chart, the orange bar for 2019 is over on the far right, and December's Highs were the 49th warmest since 1880. That's warmer than 2015, 2016 & 2017 (barely), but cooler than 2018.
In December we average 9.5 days with Highs above freezing, and even though 2019 was mild it only managed 7 of those warm days. 2018 had 9 days above 0°C, and 2017 was very warm with 17.
December 2019 didn't have any Highs below -15°C (the coldest was the 13th at -14.9°C). That's fairly unusual, and since 2000 the other Decembers without a -15°C High were 2018, 2015, 2011, 2006, 2003 & 2002. Decembers average 1 High below -20°C and 3 more below -15°C.
The average High of -3.1°C was right in the middle of the pack for recent Decembers, below 2011's very warm 1.4°C, but above 2009's very cold -12°C.
Low Temperatures
And here are the Lows. On December 3rd we set a record for warmest-Low-since-1880 at -0.6°C (the red dot in the chart), and after that things stuck fairly close to the average.
December 2019's Lows were 40th warmest overall, and were warmer than 2015, 2016 & 2017 but cooler than 2018.
There were no -20°C Lows this December! December 2019's coldest Low was -18.3°C on the 13th. On average in December there are 5.7 Lows of -20°C or colder.
Going back to 2000 the other Decembers with no -20°C Lows were 2011 & 2003, and then years like 2018, 2016 & 2001 only had 1.
The average Low of -11.4°C was right in the middle of the pack for recent Decembers, below 2011's -7.3°C, but above 2009's very cold -19.7°C.
Cold Days
In this chart we have all of the -20°C in the "early" part of each winter, up to the end of December. Right now 2019 is at 0 (although we came very close on November 11 hitting -19.6°C). Going back to 1880 there have only been 8 early-winters without any -20°C Lows: 2019, 2002, 1997, 1987, 1974, 1953, 1952 & 1919.
By this point in the winter we average about 8 -20°C Lows. Last winter we had just had 1, but the winters before that were up at 8 and 10.
Making it through November & December without any deepfreezes is a rare enough occurrence that it is worth a bit of a mini-celebration. Now we just need to make it through January & February (and sometimes March)
Snow
With 18.2cm of snow at the International, December 2019 was just above the average of 16.6cm. And it followed a very average November.
The International recorded 9 days with snow in December, which is just below the average of 9.5 days.
Snowdepth
Here we have the snowdepth for the International in orange, and Blatchford in blue. Even though the amount of snow that we got in November & December was very average, the International's snowdepth has been well above average for most of December, up as high as 27cm while the average is about 12-15cm. Blatchford has been quite a bit below that, and has spent a lot of December at around 8cm.
At the International "lasting" snow started on November 5th, and for Blatchford it was November 27th. So right now we are a month or two into the snow season, and there are about three months left before it disappears again.
January Temperatures
In January on-average we get 11 days above freezing. Since 2000 there have been some low years like 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. Last year in 2019 we had 14, and in 2010 we only had 10.
January is also our biggest month for deepfreezes, though. We average 8 Lows of -20°C or colder, and 3 of -25°C. The last time that January didn't have any Lows hit -20°C was back in 2006. Last winter January 2019 only had 4 -20°C Lows (before the giant deepfreeze of February 2019).
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