Even with a seasonable end to the month, December 2015 will be the warmest winter month on record by a large margin in Southeastern New England. In fact, it could be argued that this month is the most extreme on record temperature-wise. It will be around 5.5° warmer than the old record set in 2006 (40.6°). To put that in perspective, there is not another record monthly temperature more than 2.2° (warm or cold) from the second most extreme month since 1905. After 110 years of record keeping, when a monthly temperature record is broken, it’s usually by less than a degree, not more than 5°!
Looking ahead to early January, there will be some chilly weather around this weekend into early next week. A few flurries are possible, but most of the time it will be dry. The coldest day will most likely be Monday, with highs in the 20s. The temperature will moderate to the 40s during the day in the middle of next week. A cold front may bring rain showers in the mid to late workweek. It will be followed by more seasonably cold weather for next weekend.
It will likely become stormier by mid-January, with some East Coast snow threats possible after Jan 8-10. Looking at the pattern after mid-January, it does not seem particularly dry, but in an El Niño year, many of the storms will likely have multiple precipitation types – like the one that just hit us.
