December in Thunder Bay the warmest on record

Few peoplewho experienced December 2023 in northwestern Ontario will forget it.

It was a green Christmas in many communities, including Thunder Bay, and it often felt more like spring than winter.

Nowhere in sight were the snowstormsand bone-chilling temperatures associated with the month.

It was all very odd.

So it shouldn't be a huge surprise that Decemberwas also one for the weather history books.

Gerald Cheng,a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, saidthe last month of 2023 was anything but normal.

"Well, if we look at Thunder Bay, what's extraordinary is that we have now the warmest December," Chengtold CBC News on Dec. 29. "We are sitting at the average high of December so far as 2.7 C."

"But this is now the record, breaking the old record of zero set back in 2015."

Cheng said Environment Canada predicted earlier in December that it was going to be an abnormal winter due to El Niothe warming of the ocean surface or above-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

The last record-breaking December for Thunder Bay 2015 was also an El Nio year, he noted.

The warm weather in December was matched with a noticeable lack of snow.

The total monthly precipitation for Thunder Bay in December was 22.7 mm, well below the normal 37.5 mm, said Cheng.

Much of that precipitation fell as rain, not snow.

"Obviously there's a deficit," said Cheng about the lack of snow. "But first thing's first. The temperatures have to co-operate, and right now that's being an issue."

Cheng said there were a couple of other notable records broken in December. On Christmas Eve, Thunder Bay reached 8.3 C, beating the 7.8 C set in 1928.

On Christmas Day,the thermometer reached 7.9 C, beating the 5.6 C record set in 1999.

El Nioimpacted all of the northwest in December as well as much of Western Canada, Cheng said.

However, those in the northwest pining for more wintry weather should take heart: Cheng said the forecast for January is for much more seasonable temperatures, with the first two weeks returning to the cold preferred by some locals.