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Midwest Overview - December, 2004
December Features
Record-Breaking Snow, Cold, and Warmth
It was a climatological roller coaster ride this December in the
Midwest. The month started out rather mild across most of the
region. A major storm just prior to Christmas dumped record
amounts of snow, in excess of two feet in some locations, on the Ohio
Valley. Following the storm, arctic air spread across the
eastern half of the country, and resulted in a cold Christmas
with some record low temperatures over the snow-covered portions of the
southern Midwest and a bone-chilling reading of -42F in Embarass, MN on
December 23. As the end of the year approached,
strong southwest winds pulled much warmer air back into the Midwest,
with temperatures reaching the 60s as far north as southern
Michigan. Record highs were set or tied at a number of
locations on December 30 and 31. When all was said and done, December
temperatures ranged from near normal to 2F below in the eastern
portions of the region, to 4F to 6F above normal in southwestern and
western Minnesota (Figure
1).
December precipitation was well above normal in a broad arc extending
from northern Minnesota across northern Michigan, then south through
Ohio and back westward through Kentucky (Figure 2).
Precipitation was 100 to 220 percent of normal in this area, with most
of it coming as snow. The driest portion of the
region extended from southwestern Minnesota south through northwestern
Missouri, where less than 0.50 inches of precipitation was recorded (Figure 3).
Mild weather early in December precluded much in the way of snow.
Snowfall was well below normal across the western half of the region.
However, the week prior to Christmas more than made up for it in the
Ohio Valley and across the northern Midwest (Figure 4). In the Ohio
Valley, the storm of December 21-23 piled almost 30
inches of snow on south central Indiana, and more than 2 feet from south central
Indiana into southwestern Ohio.
Many locations set new 24-hour snowfall records, and this storm alone
also made this the snowiest December on record for locations such as
Paducah, KY and Evansville, IN. The storm stranded holiday
travelers, caused power outages, and caused damage to many structures,
mostly from collapsed roofs. Freezing rain on the southern
edge of the storm in Ohio caused extensive icing of trees and power
lines. Power was still out for 10,000 Ohio
residences on December 26. Freezing rain also caused travel
problems across the northern half of Minnesota at the end of the
month.
[For more details on weather and climate events during December, please click on the individual weekly report links on the upper right.]
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