{"id":15991,"date":"2016-01-04T13:44:12","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T20:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=15991"},"modified":"2016-01-04T13:44:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T20:44:12","slug":"december-2015-weather-recap-average-temperatures-above-normal-precipitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/thornton-weather\/december-2015-weather-recap-average-temperatures-above-normal-precipitation\/","title":{"rendered":"December 2015 weather recap: Average temperatures, above normal precipitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Warm and dry were the key weather words for the start of December 2015.\u00a0 That however changed as the month progressed and colder, wetter weather arrived.<\/p>\n<p>High pressure dominated the start of the month leading to 10 out of the first 11 days of the month seeing above normal temperatures.\u00a0 No precipitation was recorded over that period as well.<\/p>\n<p>Things began to change on the 12th of the month as Thornton saw a couple of inches of snowfall and temperatures dropped.\u00a0 A second, far more potent storm arrived on the 15th giving the Mile High City its heaviest snowfall of the season to that point.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/thornton-weather\/december-2015-top-shots-monthly-photo-slideshow\/\">December\u00a02015 top shots: Monthly photo slideshow<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Warmer and drier conditions returned up until Christmas.\u00a0 For the holiday, temperatures were over 15 degrees below normal and the afternoon and evening brought a white Christmas with moderate snowfall.<\/p>\n<p>We then wrapped up the month with a string of well below average temperatures.\u00a0 In fact, the mercury remained below the freezing mark for the balance of the month.<\/p>\n<p>Thornton\u2019s average temperature for the month came in at 29.3 degrees.\u00a0 That is just below the long term Denver average of 30.0 degrees.\u00a0 Out at the airport where Denver\u2019s official measurements are made, the average was virtually identical to Thornton\u2019s at 29.4 degrees.<\/p>\n<p>Highs in Thornton ranged from a 66.5 degrees maximum on the 9th down to a low of 00.3 degrees on the morning of the 28th.\u00a0 Denver saw its warmest temperature on the 9th also with a high of 69 degrees.\u00a0 Its low came in at 0 degrees on the 17th and 28th.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of precipitation, Thornton recorded 0.79 inches in the bucket.\u00a0 At DIA, Denver was just a bit drier at 0.71 inches.\u00a0 The December average for Denver is 0.35 inches.<\/p>\n<p>Denver averages 8.7 inches of snowfall during December.\u00a0 Both Thornton and Denver bested the average with 14.2 inches and 11.3 inches respectively.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/climatedataout122015.html\">Click here to view Thornton\u2019s December\u00a02015 climate report<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-PDdBrTFHlE0\/VorY3K23VdI\/AAAAAAAADhA\/3ZG8Syp9ySQ\/s560-Ic42\/2015-12-Temps.jpg\" alt=\"Thornton, Colorado's December 2015 temperature summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)\" width=\"560\" height=\"343\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thornton, Colorado&#8217;s December 2015 temperature summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-xZRnaEgIDkc\/VorY3auGWZI\/AAAAAAAADhE\/7l-v_g7uG8c\/s560-Ic42\/2015-12-Precip.jpg\" alt=\"Thornton, Colorado's December 2015 precipitation summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)\" width=\"560\" height=\"330\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thornton, Colorado&#8217;s December 2015 precipitation summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>From the National Weather Service<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<pre>CLIMATE REPORT\r\nNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOULDER, CO\r\n130 PM MST FRI JAN 1 2016\r\n...................................\r\n\r\n...THE DENVER CO CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER 2015...\r\n\r\nCLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD 1981 TO 2010\r\nCLIMATE RECORD PERIOD 1872 TO 2015\r\n\r\nWEATHER         OBSERVED          NORMAL  DEPART  LAST YEAR`S\r\n                 VALUE   DATE(S)  VALUE   FROM    VALUE  DATE(S)\r\n                                          NORMAL\r\n................................................................\r\nTEMPERATURE (F)\r\nRECORD\r\n HIGH              79   12\/05\/1939\r\n LOW              -25   12\/22\/1990\r\n                        12\/24\/1876\r\nHIGHEST            69   12\/09        62       7       66  12\/12\r\nLOWEST              0   12\/28        -4       4      -19  12\/30\r\n                        12\/17\r\nAVG. MAXIMUM     40.9              42.8    -1.9     44.1\r\nAVG. MINIMUM     17.9              17.1     0.8     18.5\r\nMEAN             29.4              30.0    -0.6     31.3\r\nDAYS MAX >= 90      0               0.0     0.0        0\r\nDAYS MAX <= 32     10               5.8     4.2        5\r\nDAYS MIN <= 32     28              29.4    -1.4       31\r\nDAYS MIN <= 0       2               2.0     0.0        2\r\n\r\nPRECIPITATION (INCHES)\r\nRECORD\r\n MAXIMUM         5.21   1913\r\n MINIMUM         0.00   1881\r\nTOTALS           0.71              0.35    0.36     0.59\r\nDAILY AVG.       0.02              0.01    0.01     0.02\r\nDAYS >= .01         5               4.1     0.9        7\r\nDAYS >= .10         3               1.1     1.9        2\r\nDAYS >= .50         0               0.1    -0.1        0\r\nDAYS >= 1.00        0               0.0     0.0        0\r\nGREATEST\r\n 24 HR. TOTAL    0.32   12\/15 TO 12\/15\r\n\r\nSNOWFALL (INCHES)\r\nRECORDS\r\n TOTAL           11.3               8.7\r\nRECORD DECEMBER  57.4                             1913\r\n\r\nDEGREE_DAYS\r\nHEATING TOTAL    1097              1086      11     1037\r\n SINCE 7\/1       2187              2468    -281     2291\r\nCOOLING TOTAL       0                 0       0        0\r\n SINCE 1\/1        877               769     108      701\r\n\r\nFREEZE DATES\r\nRECORD\r\n EARLIEST     09\/08\/1962\r\n LATEST       06\/08\/2007\r\nEARLIEST                        10\/07\r\nLATEST                          05\/05\r\n.................................................\r\n\r\nWIND (MPH)\r\nAVERAGE WIND SPEED              9.8\r\nRESULTANT WIND SPEED\/DIRECTION   4\/210\r\nHIGHEST WIND SPEED\/DIRECTION    41\/280    DATE  12\/09\r\nHIGHEST GUST SPEED\/DIRECTION    64\/290    DATE  12\/15\r\n\r\nSKY COVER\r\nPOSSIBLE SUNSHINE (PERCENT)   MM\r\nAVERAGE SKY COVER           0.50\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS FAIR            5\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS PC             22\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS CLOUDY          4\r\n\r\nAVERAGE RH (PERCENT)     58\r\n\r\nWEATHER CONDITIONS. NUMBER OF DAYS WITH\r\nTHUNDERSTORM              0     MIXED PRECIP               0\r\nHEAVY RAIN                0     RAIN                       0\r\nLIGHT RAIN                0     FREEZING RAIN              0\r\nLT FREEZING RAIN          0     HAIL                       0\r\nHEAVY SNOW                1     SNOW                       3\r\nLIGHT SNOW                8     SLEET                      0\r\nFOG                      12     FOG W\/VIS <= 1\/4 MILE      3\r\nHAZE                      6\r\n\r\n-  INDICATES NEGATIVE NUMBERS.\r\nR  INDICATES RECORD WAS SET OR TIED.\r\nMM INDICATES DATA IS MISSING.\r\nT  INDICATES TRACE AMOUNT.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warm and dry were the key weather words for the start of December 2015.\u00a0 That however changed as the month progressed and colder, wetter weather arrived. High pressure dominated the start of the month leading to 10 out of the first 11 days of the month seeing above normal temperatures.\u00a0 No precipitation was recorded over &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/thornton-weather\/december-2015-weather-recap-average-temperatures-above-normal-precipitation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">December 2015 weather recap: Average temperatures, above normal precipitation<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15991"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15992,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15991\/revisions\/15992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}