Source: Corey Davis, NC CLIMATE OFFICE, 1/4/21


With year-long temperature and precipitation records on the line, we narrowly missed both following warm and wet (but not warm and wet enough) weather in December. The initial stats still show it was an extreme year. You're invited to learn more in an upcoming webinar!

Cooler Spells Temper our Temperatures
While a moderately warm month could have set a new annual temperature record for the state, December instead stumbled across the finish line with average temperatures less than a degree above the long-term average.

The National Centers for Environmental Information reports a preliminary statewide average temperature of 42.3°F, which was our 53rd-warmest December out of the past 126 years. It did continue a string of ten consecutive Decembers with above-normal average temperatures in North Carolina.

Our average high and low temperatures for the month were generally within a degree or two of normal. Along the Outer Banks, Ocracoke was a few degrees above normal. In the Mountains, some sites were slightly below normal, including Hot Springs, which had its 10th-coolest December since 1986 and its coolest since 2005.

For more of this story, click here.