An Unusually Mild Winter

By Russell Russ

Here are the weather highlights from December as recorded at Norfolk’s National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer Station, Norfolk 2 SW, by the Great Mountain Forest Corporation.

We got a quick taste of some cold weather during the first full week of the month. A wind chill temperature of 13 degrees below zero was recorded the morning of Dec. 8. But the cold was short lived. The month was the second warmest December observed in the last 75 years. Norfolk 2 SW has recorded weather observations since January 1, 1932.

The month’s high temperature of 63 degrees occurred on Dec. 1. The low of 8 degrees was on Dec. 8. The month’s average temperature was 34.6 degrees, a whopping 10 degrees above normal. December of 2001 was the warmest with an average of 36.0 degrees.

The monthly precipitation of 2.22 inches was 2.36 inches below normal. There was one thunderstorm in the early evening of Dec.1. National Weather Service radar indicated three possible tornadoes in Litchfield County that evening, prompting it to issue a tornado warning for our area. There was some wind damage around Litchfield County, but officially no tornadoes formed.

There were six days with snow flurries or light snow, but all that could be measured was a total of 1.5 inches, a full 16 inches below the monthly normal. This month recorded the third least amount of snow for a December since we began keeping records. December of 1943 was first with only 0.6 inches and Dec. 1999 was second with only 1.3 inches of snow.

Precipitation for 2006 totaled 56.16 inches. This was 3.67 inches above a normal year, but nothing special. The snowfall total for the year was a mere 50.4 inches, making it the fourth least snow total for any year since 1932. The other years with record little snow totals are 1998 with 33.0 inches, 1999 with 44.1 inches and 2004 with 49.5 inches.

The average temperature for the year was 47.8 degrees, making it tied with 2002 as our third warmest year in the last 75 years. The warmest years were 1998 with 48.4 degrees followed by 2001 with 48.3 degrees.