Regional Outbreaks of Severe Weather Through Early Next Week; Early Season Heat Wave across the South

Active spring pattern across the center of our nation with several episodes of severe weather and heavy rainfall expected into next week. The potential for very large hail, long track tornadoes, severe wind gusts, frequent cloud to ground lightning strikes and flash flooding are in the outlook. Furthermore, dangerous early season heat wave continues for the Gulf Coast states into early next week. Read More >

Monthly Climate Summary - December 2013

National Weather Service, Springfield, MO

Overview

Normal Departure Maps

Records

Upcoming Normals

Monthly Climate Overview

Several storm systems affected the Missouri Ozarks and southeast Kansas throughout the month of December which brought a variety of Winter weather to the area on several different occasions. Temperatures across the area were below normal for the month with generally drier than normal conditions for precipitation in the month.

Here are reviews of some of the more notable events from the month...

Heavy Snow December 5th-6th

Snowfall December 9th

Wintery Precipitation December 13th-14th

Winter Storm December 20th-21st

	Springfield	Joplin	West Plains	Vichy
Highest Temperature of the Month	62	66	67	65
Average High Temperature	42.1	43.2	44.4	41.1
Lowest Temperature of the Month	1	3	6	3
Average Low Temperature	21.8	22.9	24.8	21.4
Average Mean Temperature	31.9	33.0	34.6	31.2
Depart from Normal	-3.1	-4.2	-1.6	-2.5
Rank	15th coldest / 126	12th coldest / 86	18th coldest / 66	8th coldest / 64
Days with lows of 32 deg F or Lower	26	27	20	27
Days with lows of 0 deg F or Lower	0	0	0	0
Days with highs of 32 degrees or lower	8	11	5	12
Days with highs of 90 degrees or warmer	0	0	0	0

Precipitation (Inches)	2.56	1.38	2.31	1.87
Depart from Normal	-0.48	-1.44	-1.33	-0.77
Rank	51st wettest / 126	34th driest / 103	24th driest / 66	29th driest / 65
days of 0.01 or greater	9	6	5	6
days of 0.10 or greater	6	4	4	4
days of 0.50 or greater	2	1	2	2
days of 1.00 or greater	1	0	1	0
Monthly Snowfall	13.5
	+8.6

Monthly Climate Maps

December 2013 Precipitation Departure from Normal

December 2013 Precipitation Departure from Normal

December 2013 Average Temperature Departure from Normal

December 2013 Average Temperature Departure from Normal

Monthly Climate Records

List of December 2013 Records
Date	Station	Record
12/6/2013	Springfield	3.2 inches of snow breaks the old record of 2.5 inches set in 1969.
12/9/2013	Springfield	4.3 inches of snow breaks the old record of 2.5 inches set in 2002.

Monthly Climate Normals

Normal Conditions for the Upcoming 3 Months
Springfield
	High	Low	Precip.	Snowfall
January	42.9	22.4	2.47	5.4
February	48.2	26.1	2.52	3.6
March	57.5	35.2	3.62	2.4
Joplin
	High	Low	Precip.	Snowfall
January	44.9	25.0	2.03	4.7
February	50.5	29.2	2.32	3.5
March	60.1	37.7	3.42	1.1
West Plains
	High	Low	Precip.
January	44.6	23.5	2.72
February	49.2	26.5	2.84
March	59.5	35.5	4.29
Vichy
	High	Low	Precip.
January	40.7	21.5	2.17
February	45.8	25.5	1.93
March	56.3	34.3	3.45