December Weather Was Extreme One In Vermont; Made Several Top 10 Lists

Floodwaters cover fields near Williston, Vermont on
December 19. The month was wild, with a destructive flood
combined with extreme warmth for the entire month in Vermont.

 I'll have a post later today with some wild weather news about the just-ended year of 2023, but I figure I'll start with an appetizer by reviewing December in Vermont.  

There's plenty to cover. If you thought the weather in December was weird, you're absolutely right. 

 Burlington, Vermont had its second warmest, second wettest and eighth least snowy December on record. It's very rare to have so many different items in the Top 10 list. 

INCREDIBLE WARMTH

December, 2023 would have easily been the warmest on record if not for the absolutely bonkers month of December, 2015, which was off the charts warm by nearly seven degrees above the old record. The just past month was an impressive 2.2 degrees hotter than what until now had been the second warmest December. 

The warmth was consistent, and most prominent at night. Burlington only had the fifth warmest average high temperatures for December, but easily the second warmest average minimums (again behind the tropical December, 2015).

An impressive 13 days during December never went below freezing, and the low for the entire month was a balmy 14 degrees.  I believe all Decembers in Burlington dating back to the 1880s - except for 2015 and 2023 - got into the single number at least once. Most had below zero readings. 

All of Vermont was - of course - wicked warm in December.  Many places, including Montpelier, Rutland and Bennington, were more than 7 degrees warmer than average. The average low temperature during December in Rutland was a whopping 10 degrees above normal. 

The warmth was also widespread beyond Vermont. It looks like all of the Lower 48 might have had a milder than  normal December. Areas around the western Great Lakes and northern Plains were especially warm. 

Normally frigid International Falls, Minnesota, known as the "Icebox of the Nation", was a whopping 15.8 degrees warmer than normal and never got below zero during December.  Mornings there are normally below zero in late December and it's been as cold as minus 41 degrees there during the month

I'll have complete national statistics for December in a week or two.

RAINFALL

December was punctuated by yet another destructive Vermont flood, so of course it was wet. Burlington saw 5.78 inches of rain during the month, easily the second wettest on record. Only 1973, with 5.95 inches, was soggier. 

Not only was December warm and wet, it was also gloomy.
Most days were overcast and fog was frequent, like
in this scene from St. Albans on December 28

Woodstock measured 6.05 inches during the month, and more than half of that came during the December 18-19 flood storm. 

The damage tally for the flood is still being assessed, but I'm sure at least parts of Vermont will be declared a disaster area again. 

And that wasn't the only impressive storm of the month. Systems on December 3-4 and December 10-11 deposited fairly heavy rains in the valleys, certainly enough to pre-soak the ground for the December 18 deluge.

Those two early month storms also featured heavy, wet snow in high elevations, which each cut power to more than 10,000 Vermont homes and businesses. So definitely a rough month. 

The month was remarkably gloomy as well.  I count 23 out of 31 days that were overcast.  December is normally a cloudy month, but 2023 was especially so. We had a number of foggy days as well, especially toward the end of the month. 

SNOWFALL

You'd think with such a wet December, a fairly big portion of the precipitation would fall as snow. In the valleys, that definitely wasn't the case. Burlington only mustered 2.9 inches of snow, making this the 8th least snowy December. 

For comparison, that super wet December, 1973 in Burlington included a respectable 24.1 inches of snow for the month. 

Other valley locations were on the light side with snow, too. St. Johnsbury, for instance, only had 7.5 inches, more than a foot below average. 

OUTLOOK

As always, it's not really worth it to get into any detailed forecasts beyond five days out. But, for laughs and giggles, the temporary period of relatively quiet weather we're enjoying as the New Year dawns might not last. 

Long range forecasts into the middle of the month suggest it might turn stormier, though it could stay relatively warm. Not bonkers warm like December was, but still, a little milder than average, in general. 

That doesn't mean we won't have a hard core winter. There's plenty of time for that in the second half of January, February and much of March.