December is the first month of winter. There was a little something in the month for everybody.

The first few weeks started off relatively mild with temperature readings in the 20’s 30’s and even 40 degrees on the 6th. From then on it got colder with morning readings in the teens and low 20’s.

We had our first below zero reading of the winter of minus 4 degrees on the 24th then it stayed in the single digits for the next few mornings with strong winds. The National Weather Service issued warnings for wind chills of minus 35 degrees. For Christmas eve and Christmas day it was suggested that we should stay indoors.

However, the last week of the month we had a warming trend with readings in the 30’s and 40’s.  Pine Creek along River St. was clogged with an ice jam from the West Street bridge  and upstream for about 300 yards.  The warmer temperatures caused the ice jam to break up and go downstream. So there you have it for the first month of winter.

The average high temperature for the month is 32 degrees and the average low is 18 degrees. Last year we received 5.43″ of rain and melted snow. This year the reading was 3.44″ of rain and melted snow. In 2021 we received 3.14″ of snow and this year we received 5.22″  We had 14 days of 1″ of snow on the ground with the maximum reading 0f 3″ on 4 days.

We had 2 mornings with fog and ice glaze on one morning.

For the year (2022) the total rainfall was 38.22″ which is 4.07″ below normal We measured 46.53″ of snow which is 7.47″ below normal.

Happy New Year.

Henry W. Lush

National Weather Service Observer