Monthly Review: December 2015

While, statistically, Victoria didn't experience a lot of extreme weather in December 2015, it was an interesting month.

The mean temperature for the month at Victoria Gonzales was 6.2 degrees, almost a degree warmer than the 30-year average of 5.3.  December saw an average daily high of 8.1 and an average low of 4.3, again warmer than the average high/low of 7.2 / 3.3.  However, these monthly averages mask what was almost two different months when it came to temperature.  The first half of the month was very mild - in fact the second mildest Dec 1-15 on record - with a mean temperature of 8.2 degrees and an average high/low of 10.0 / 6.3.  The second half of the month got much chillier - nearly 2 degrees below average - with a mean temperature of 4.4 and an average high/low of 6.3 / 2.5.

The warmest day of the month was 12.8 on December 8.  There were 7 days when the temperature topped 10 degrees, all between Dec. 3 and 11th.  The coldest overnight low of the month was -0.9 on December 31.  There were 2 nights when the overnight temperature dropped below freezing - December 30 and 31.  In an average December, Victoria Gonzales gets 3 nights below 0.

December was a rather wet month, with rainfall measured on 21 days, compared with the average 17.5 days for December.  Total precipitation for the  month - all rain - was 120.2 mm, 27% more than the December average of 94.8 mm.  Precipitation was also above normal at the Victoria Airport: 163.9 mm compared with the average of 142.5.  To our south, it was even wetter: Seattle had its second wettest December on record, with 285 mm and Portland had its wettest December on record with 387 mm!  The record for Victoria Gonzales is 331 mm back in December 1917.

With the continuing relatively  mild weather in December, there was no snow recorded.  The last time we saw any snow fall was more than a year ago, when 1 cm fell on November 29, 2014.  The last time we had more than 1 cm actually accumulate on the ground was January 20, 2012 - almost 4 years ago.

We experienced a lot of wind in Victoria in December, particularly during the first part of the month when there were a series of storms.  The peak wind was 104 km/hr gust on December 12.  Wind gusts topped 80 km/hr on three other days.