Warm December 2015

Open water on White Bear Lake near the end of December
Courtesy: MN Climatology Office

 

December 2015 was the warmest on record across Minnesota. The average temperature for the month was 24.8 degrees for Minnesota. This was the warmest average temperature for December looking at the period of record from 1895 to 2015. This beat the old record of 24.1 degrees set in 1939. December wound up being the third warmest in the Twin Cities with a longer period of record. The average high for December 2015 in the Twin Cities was 30.2 °F.

The largest impact from the warm temperatures has been the late freeze-up on area lakes. Lake Minnetonka averages an ice in date of December 7th. On December 27th parts of the lake had yet to freeze over. The latest ice in date for Lake Minnetonka is January 2nd.

Top 15 Warmest Decembers at Twin Cities 
--------------------------------------- 
     Temp   Year
     ----   ----    
1.   33.8...1877
2.   30.5...1913 
3.   30.2...2015        
4.   30.1...1959        
5.   30.1...1891        
6.   30.0...1931        
7.   29.9...1923        
8.   29.1...2006        
9.   29.0...1881        
10.  28.8...1889        
11.  28.5...1918        
12.  28.5...1894       
13.  28.0...1965       
14.  27.8...2011       
15.  27.7...1939