December was the warmest December on record in our area

The following are the December monthly records that were broken in our area:

	Dec., 2015 avg temp	Old record / year
Evansville	47.8	46.7 / 1923
Paducah	48.9	45.4 / 1971
Cape Girardeau	46.7	44.5 / 1971

Not only did our area see the warmest December on record, but it also experienced one of the warmest months compared to normal of any month on record! Only March 2012 saw a greater temperature surplus compared to normal for any month on record in Evansville and Paducah!

December was also a wet month. Paducah received 7.42 inches of rain, making it the eighth wettest December. Cape Girardeau and Evansville did not rank in the top 10 wettest. (Cape Girardeau would have if not for an equipment malfunction that resulted in missing precipitation measurements on December 27-28, when approximately 4 to 5 inches of rain came down in the city.)

No measurable snow was recorded in December. This is the first winter since the winter of 2009-10 that no measurable snow fell in November or December. The average date of the first measurable snowfall at Paducah is December 22. At Evansville, the average date is December 7.

Records go back to 1897 at Evansville, 1937 at Paducah, and 1960 at Cape Girardeau. Snowfall records are not kept at the Cape Girardeau airport.

How did the year 2015 look on a monthly basis? Here is a listing of months that ranked in the top 10 coldest, hottest, wettest, driest, or snowiest: