The average Nelson temperature of 1.7 C in December 2023 might be the highest ever for that month, tied with December 2002, according to a meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada.
But Derek Lee told the Nelson Star that there is a 10-year data gap in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in which there could have been a warmer December.
The 1.7-degree average is significant, Lee said, because the average for December tends to be around minus-3 C.
He said the warmest December temperature in 2023 was 6.2 C on Dec. 21, and the lowest was minus-6.3 C on Dec. 24.
The amount of precipitation in December — 91.88 millimetres — was not unusual, Lee said, although there was a high ratio of rain to snow.
Lee says this is obvious from looking at the temperatures.
“All of the daytime highs in Nelson recorded were above zero,” he said. “So the nighttime could have gone to the snow, but it would have largely melted.”
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