Texas Had The Warmest December On Record In Over 130 Years
By Dani Medina
January 5, 2022
Everything's bigger warmer in Texas? It was last month!
Texas recorded the warmest December in 132 years, according to state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. Average temperatures were 5 to 9 degrees above normal.
“It’s like the entire state moved south for the winter. Amarillo got Dallas’s normal temperatures, Dallas got Corpus Christi’s normal temperatures, and Austin got Brownsville’s normal temperatures. Not only is it by far the warmest December since the beginning of comprehensive weather records, it will probably also turn out to be the warmest winter month, period,” Nielsen-Gammon said in a Texas A&M news post.
February 2017 currently holds the trophy for hottest winter month in Texas, with an average temperature of 58.4 degrees, according to Texas A&M. But when it comes to December weather, the only month in recorded history with comparable warmth was December 1889.
“Observing practices were different, but it’s clear that December 1889 was an unusual month also. The first decent cold front of that month was on December 29," Nielsen-Gammon said.
He said he anticipates December 2021 will have an average temperature about 12 degrees above the long-term average when the data becomes available.
Nielsen-Gammon credited the warm Texas months to climate change — average temperatures are about 2 degrees now versus the 20th century.
“Global warming didn’t cause this December to be record-setting, but it did contribute to the margin of victory,” he said.