{"id":9874,"date":"2013-01-02T15:06:41","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T22:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=9874"},"modified":"2013-01-02T15:06:41","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T22:06:41","slug":"december-2012-thornton-weather-recap-warmer-drier-than-normal-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/climatology\/december-2012-thornton-weather-recap-warmer-drier-than-normal-again\/","title":{"rendered":"December 2012 Thornton weather recap: Warmer, drier than normal again"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the immediate days following the end of the month most of us are likely to remember the bitter cold that closed it out.\u00a0 However an unseasonably mild start to December 2012 made the month not only finish warmer than average but also drier than normal.<\/p>\n

December started out very mild with the first eight days seeing overall average temperatures 12.7 degrees above normal.\u00a0 Colder air moved in after that for a few days before above normal temperatures returned again and continued through the 18th.<\/p>\n

Another three day cold spell arrived but mild temperatures returned on the 21st.\u00a0 Christmas Eve ushered in a big chill that lingered through the end of the month.<\/p>\n

Overall December\u2019s average temperature in Denver as measured at Denver International Airport was 31.2 degrees.\u00a0 This was 1.2 degrees above the 1981 to 2000 average of 31.0 degrees.\u00a0 Here in Thornton we were closer to average with a monthly average temperature of 30.5 degrees.<\/p>\n

Denver temperatures ranged from a high of 69 degrees on the 5th down to a bitter cold low of -2 on the 26th.\u00a0 Eight days failed to reach high temperatures above the freezing mark in the Mile High City and it recorded two days with low temperatures at or below zero.<\/p>\n

Thornton saw its warmest temperature on the 1st of the month with a high of 67.6 degrees and its coldest temperature of 00.4 degrees on the 26th.\u00a0 Like Denver, Thornton recorded eight days with high temperatures failing to reach 32 degrees.<\/p>\n

Precipitation as recorded at DIA was slightly below normal during December.\u00a0 0.27 inch was recorded as compared to the average of 0.35 inch.\u00a0 Thornton was unfortunately drier as we only recorded 0.19 inch of precipitation.<\/p>\n

Snowfall fell short of average as well during the month.\u00a0 Denver recorded 5.2 inches and Thornton 3.7 inches.\u00a0 On average the Mile High City records 8.4 inches during the month.<\/p>\n

With the end of the month, Denver\u2019s 2012 \u2013 2013 seasonal snowfall total falls further behind average.\u00a0 To date it is 8.8 inches below normal.\u00a0 While the snowpack has rebounded considerably thanks to the storms in the latter half of the month, it is currently at 72% of normal.<\/p>\n

Click here to view Thornton’s December 2012 Climate Summary.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Thornton,<\/a>
Thornton, Colorado December 2012 Temperature Summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Thornton,<\/a>
Thornton, Colorado December 2012 Precipitation Summary. (ThorntonWeather.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the National Weather Service:<\/strong><\/p>\n

...THE DENVER CO CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER 2012... \r\n\r\nCLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD 1981 TO 2010\r\nCLIMATE RECORD PERIOD 1872 TO 2012\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\/05        65      -4       58  12\/18\r\nLOWEST             -2   12\/26       -10       8       -5  12\/06\r\nAVG. MAXIMUM     44.2              42.8     1.4     38.5\r\nAVG. MINIMUM     18.3              17.1     1.2     14.8\r\nMEAN             31.2              30.0     1.2     26.6\r\nDAYS MAX >= 90      0               0.0     0.0        0\r\nDAYS MAX = .01         5               4.1     0.9        6\r\nDAYS >= .10         1               1.1    -0.1        3\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    0.20   12\/24 TO 12\/25\r\n\r\nSNOWFALL (INCHES)\r\nRECORDS\r\n TOTAL           57.4   1913\r\nTOTALS            5.2               8.4\r\n\r\nDEGREE_DAYS\r\nHEATING TOTAL    1038              1086     -48     1182\r\n SINCE 7\/1       2233              2468    -235     2434\r\nCOOLING TOTAL       0                 0       0        0\r\n SINCE 1\/1       1236               769     467      964\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              9.9\r\nRESULTANT WIND SPEED\/DIRECTION   3\/215\r\nHIGHEST WIND SPEED\/DIRECTION    38\/270    DATE  12\/03\r\nHIGHEST GUST SPEED\/DIRECTION    48\/290    DATE  12\/03\r\n\r\nSKY COVER\r\nPOSSIBLE SUNSHINE (PERCENT)   MM\r\nAVERAGE SKY COVER           0.60\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS FAIR            1\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS PC             22\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS CLOUDY          8\r\n\r\nAVERAGE RH (PERCENT)     49\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                0     SNOW                       2\r\nLIGHT SNOW                8     SLEET                      0\r\nFOG                      10     FOG W\/VIS<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the immediate days following the end of the month most of us are likely to remember the bitter cold that closed it out.\u00a0 However an unseasonably mild start to December 2012 made the month not only finish warmer than average but also drier than normal. December started out very mild with the first eight … Continue reading December 2012 Thornton weather recap: Warmer, drier than normal again<\/span> →<\/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],"tags":[156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874"}],"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=9874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9875,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874\/revisions\/9875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}