December ends mild, snow-free
December ended with a windy, frigid flourish that (mercifully) postponed the New Year's Eve fireworks at the Inner Harbor until the next night (above). Sustained winds on Dec. 31 peaked at 38 mph at the airport, with gusts to 51.)
But on the whole, the month was a bit milder than the long-term average for Decembers at BWI-Marshall Airport, with even less than the scant 1.7 inches of snow that is the December average. Traces were noted on seven other dates. Western Maryland saw far more from storms blowing off the Great Lakes.
That's not to say we didn't have our wintry cold snaps. After a mild start, December sank into a four-day cold spell in which daytime highs got stuck in the 30s for three days (Dec. 6-8). Lows reached the high teens, with the month's low of 18 degrees touched on the 6th. That period delivered the only measurable snowfall for the month, the meager 0.6 inch that fell on Dec. 6.
Things warmed up after that, with highs of 66 degrees at the airport on Dec. 10, and 67 degrees on the 15th. There was more cold weather just before Christmas, with temperatures averaging 12 or 13 degrees below the long-term norms, on the 22nd and 23rd.
But readings warmed into the 50s and 60s on six dates beginning on the 24th. The month's high was 69 degrees, recorded on Dec. 28.
So, on average, the month ended 1.8 degrees above the long-term norms. Precipitation was slightly below. Twenty-seven dates were rated as cloudy or partly cloudy. But we saved a bit of cash on our heating bills, with heating degree-days ending about 6.2 percent below the average for BWI.
January is our coldest month, with average highs of just 41 degrees before they begin to rise again on Jan. 30. The average low sink to 23 degrees from the 11th through the 26th before they begin to climb again toward spring.
The average snow total for a January in Baltimore is 7 inches, our snowiest month over the long haul. But we've had that much snow or more in January only four times in the last 20 years:
January 1996: 32.6 inches
January 2000: 23.1 inches
January 2004: 8.4 inches
January 2005: 7.6 inches
That's about one in four years. Seems like we're due, no?
Comments
23.1 inches.
Wasn't that January 2003???
FR: Nope. These are monthly totals, not individual storms. You may be thinking of February 2003, when BWI got one 28-inch storm and a total of 40.5 inches of snow for the month. January of that year only saw 5.3 inches of the white death. http://www.erh.noaa.gov/lwx/climate/bwi/bwisnow.txt
Posted by: Wick | January 5, 2009 1:21 PM
I hope we're due. Nothing makes me happier than some ripsnorting weather.
K-
Posted by: Kem White | January 5, 2009 2:51 PM
What month has the most average snowfall for the State of Maryland?
Is it December, January or February?
FR: Based on data from BWI airport, it's January, with an average of 7 inches during the 30-year period from 1971 through 2000. February is second, at 6.4 inches, followed by March (2.4 inches) and December (1.7 inches). Here's the link: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/lwx/climate/bwi/bwisnow.txt
Posted by: Bob | January 15, 2009 8:05 AM