Fall 2012 Summary

A warm fall that had above average precipitation

Apart from a 2 week period in late October into early November where the temperature remained below average, the rest of season was mostly warmer than average.  Then a mild beginning of December caused the overall fall temperature to be 1.2 degrees warmer than average.  But this pales in comparison to last year when it was 2.5 above.

November was also the anomaly for precipitation, however a wet start and end to season just managed to get us out of the average range to make it a wet fall.  The 248.2 mm was more than the average of 222.5 mm and just a little above the top of the average range which is 238.2 mm.


Summary for Fall 2012:
Maximum Temperature 23.6 °C
Minimum Temperature -7.4 °C
Average Daily High Temperature 9.3 °C (Long term average 8.3 °C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 1.4 °C  (Long term average -0.5 °C)
Total Precipitation 248.2 mm (Long term average 220.9 mm)


(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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November 2012 Summary

A dry and colder (but still average) November

So that’s what a cold month feels like!  However, overall it was just 0.2 degrees below average, as this is within the average range, November was not classified as a colder than average month.  Thus it has still been 19 months since one of those, but it does break the streak of months when it was at least a bit warmer than average overall.

After two really wet months, November was really dry, in fact at 22.5 mm it was the 4th driest since records began in the region almost 100 years ago.  As far as snow, we only had 2 cm which is much less than the 14 cm of a typical November.

With this dry month we are at 701.2 mm for the year compared to the average of 832.9 mm, this means (spoiler alert) that 2011 will most likely end up as a drier than average year overall.  We would need around 150 mm for the month of December to get into the average range.  This amount of precipitation has never happened before in December in this area.


Summary for November 2012:
Maximum Temperature 16.5°C
Minimum Temperature -6.5°C
Average Daily High Temperature 5.9°C (Long term average 6.1°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -1.5°C (Long term average -1.4°C)
Total Precipitation 22.5 mm (Long term average 82.3 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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October 2012 Summary

The second wettest October on record that was also warm

Although the daily average high temperatures were close to average, the generally cloudy conditions during the month didn’t let it get that cold at night. As a result, the daily low average temperatures were 2 degrees higher than the long-term average. This marks the 19th month in a row with above average overall temperatures.

The story of the month was the incredible amount of precipitation, at 156.4 mm it was the second wettest October since records began in the area in 1914 (the wettest was back in 1954 with 190.8 mm). It was consistently wet with 6 days where over 10 mm fell, a
couple over 20 mm and the longest dry period only lasted 2 days.

Obviously with a month as wet as this, the total precipitation for the year at 679.0 mm is now getting closer to the average for this point of the year of 754.9 mm.

Summary for October 2012:
Maximum Temperature 23.6°C
Minimum Temperature -3.5°C
Average Daily High Temperature 13.5°C (Long term average 13.5°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 5.2°C (Long term average 3.0°C)
Total Precipitation 156.4 mm (Long term average 67.1 mm)
(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Hottest day for the rest of the year?

Whatever the high temperature gets to Thursday, October 25th (I have seen forecasts of 20 to 22), there is a high probability that it will be the warmest temperature we see for some time, possibly all the way until next spring.

Although temperatures like this have been seen in November, it gets less and less likely the later we get in the year.

So hopefully everybody can get out and enjoy the day.

Frost-free season over

At 9:30 pm on October 12th the temperature went down to -0.2 °C marking the end of the frost-free season.  This is pretty much the average data of first frost in the last 10 years.  Note that on the evening of October 7th the weather station run by Environment Canada at the Waterloo-Wellington airport first went below zero, but the UW weather station didn't quite get that low.

The start of the frost-free season was on May 1 of this year, making the length of the season a total of 165 days.  This is about a week longer than the average frost-free season in the last 10 years.

September 2012 Summary

Finally a wet month and the warm trend continues

Although not as warm as previous months, the temperature for September was still 0.7  degrees above average.  This now marks a full year and a half (18 months) where the monthly overall temperature has been above average.

The real story of the month was a break from the very dry conditions we have seen since early June.  The almost 40 mm we got on the 4th  of the month was more that the entire month of July.

The last time we had this much precipitation in a single month (120.5 mm) was back in October of 2011 (141.9 mm).  It was also only the second above average month of the year.

The wet month got the total for the year (522.1 mm) a bit closer to the average (685.2 mm) but it has still been a dry year.

Summary for September 2012:
Maximum Temperature 29.4°C
Minimum Temperature 2.2°C
Average Daily High Temperature 20.6°C (Long term average 20.2°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 9.4°C (Long term average 8.5°C)
Total Precipitation 120.5 mm (Long term average 87.5 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Summer 2012 Summary

A very hot and somewhat dry Summer

Nobody who experienced this summer needs to be told that it was hot.  For the third summer in a row it was over a degree and a half warmer than average.  That heat was also very consistent with only 3 days that were more than 5 degrees colder than average.

The precipitation for the entire summer at 211.9 mm, although well below the average of 272.1 mm, just squeaked into the average range with a wet start to September.  However, the very wet ending masked what was quite a dry summer for most of the season.  The precipitation for July and August was less than half of the average for those months.

In the UW weather station poll it was the least popular summer since I started doing the poll back in 2008.  Typically, around 75% of respondents would say the summer was either great or good, but this year only 42% voted for these categories.

Summary for Summer 2012:
Maximum Temperature 34.0 °C
Minimum Temperature 5.4 °C
Average Daily High Temperature 26.2 °C (Long term average 24.3 °C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 14.1 °C  (Long term average 12.3 °C)
Total Precipitation 211.9 mm (Long term average 272.1 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Summer 2012 poll results

Just wanted a post that summarized the summer 2012 poll:

Great (Love the hot weather, would not have changed a thing) 26 (27%)

Good (Like the hot weather, but a few more breaks would have been nice) 20 (15%)

OK (Definitely needed some more rain and more cool days) 27 (28%)

Bad (I withered under the heat and dry weather) 20 (15%)

Terrible (Too much heat!) 16 (12%)

Summer 2012 poll

So what did you think of this long, hot summer we had?

Let the world know by voting in the University of Waterloo Weather Station Summer 2012 poll.

The poll is located at the top of the blog page: http://uwweatherstation.blogspot.ca/

August 2012 Summary

Yet another month that continues the hot and dry pattern

It was “only” 1.4 degrees warmer than average in August, making it the second “coldest” month this year (or at least the month that was second closest to the average).  We actually had 4 days in a row where the daily high temperature was lower than the average, albeit not by that much, but still that hasn’t happened since early June.

The 48.1 mm of precipitation made it the third wettest month of the year, however it was still well below the average of 87.0 mm.  It was actually decently wet for the first half of August, but then there was hardly anything for rest of the month.

The 402.9 mm of precipitation so far this year is still the second driest first 8 months of the year and much less than the average of 598.0 mm.

Summary for August 2012:
Maximum Temperature 32.7°C
Minimum Temperature 7.7°C
Average Daily High Temperature 26.2°C (Long term average 24.8°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 14.1°C (Long term average 12.7°C)
Total Precipitation 48.1 mm (Long term average 87.5 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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July 2012 Summary

Another month that continues the hot and dry pattern

Although we didn’t see the extreme high temperatures of last July, the overall temperatures this month were the exact same as last year at 2.67 higher than average.  There were only two days (the 19th and 20th) where the high temperatures were lower than average.

Although not historically dry, the 37.3 mm of precipitation was certainly below average (92.9 mm).  It always seemed that the storms in the area would hit other parts of Southern Ontario but we only had 2 days of really significant precipitation.

With another dry month we have now seen the driest first 7 months of the year (353.6 mm) since 1963 (333.7 mm).  Of course this is well below the average for this time of year (509.0 mm).

Summary for July 2012:
Maximum Temperature 34.0°C
Minimum Temperature 10.3°C
Average Daily High Temperature 28.9°C (Long term average 25.9°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 16.1°C (Long term average 13.7°C)
Total Precipitation 37.3 mm (Long term average 92.9 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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June 2012 Summary

Another hot month, but finally some rain

At two and a half degrees above average, it was a very hot month.  However the longest hot streak only lasted for 3 days so we never had to wait long for some relief from the heat.  Also, as hot as June was, you only have to go back to 2005 to find a hotter one.

So although the temperatures we saw this month were not all that noteworthy, the cumulative effect of many months of above average temperatures has made this the hottest 12 month period since records began in the area almost 100 years ago.

Until recently the warmest 12 month period in the region was the calendar year of 1998 when the average temperature was 8.98°C.  With the warm winter we had, combined with the record breaking extremely hot March, the average for July 2011 to June 2012 was 9.30°C.  This solidly beats 1988 and is well above the 1971-2000 average annual temperature of 6.7°C.

It was a crazy rainy start to the month with the wettest single day of the year so far (56.7 mm) happening June first.  This was almost as much as during the entire months of April and May combined (57.7 mm).  The rest of the month only had 50.9 mm and the last half of the month was actually relatively dry.

With this wet month, the gap has closed between the measured total precipitation so far this year (316.3 mm) and the average (416.6 mm), but overall the first half of the year was still very dry.

Summary for June 2012:
Maximum Temperature 32.5°C
Minimum Temperature 7.1°C
Average Daily High Temperature 24.9°C (Long term average 23.5°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 13.3°C (Long term average 11.2°C)
Total Precipitation 107.6 mm (Long term average 80.0 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Interview on Ontario Morning

I was on the CBC's Ontario Morning on July 27, 2012 talking about the warm temperatures of the last year:

Listen to the interview here.

Hottest year (12 month period) ever seen

Although we are a few days away from the end of the month, it is likely that the 12 month period which began at the start of July 2011 to the end of June 2012 will go down as the warmest in the almost 100 years of recorded weather data in the region.

Until recently the warmest 12 month period in the region happened to be the calendar year of 1998 when the average temperature was 8.98 degrees.  The last 12 months will be around 9.30 degrees depending on  how these last few days play out.  By the way the 1971-2000 average annual temperature is 6.7 degrees.

With the warm winter we had, combined with the record breaking extremely hot March puts the average for the July 2011 to June 2012 period at 9.30 degrees.  This solidly beats the old record.

The last time we had a colder than average month was back in March of 2011.

Spring 2012 Summary

The very hot and dry Spring
It was consistently warm during the Spring, enough to make it the third warmest since records began in the region behind only 1949 and 1991.  Overall it was just over 2 degrees warmer than average. 

If it wasn’t for a very wet start to June, it might have been a record dry spring.  It was still a below average Spring for precipitation with 155.8 mm compared to 221.0 mm, even with over 97 mm in the first 3 weeks of June.

Summary for Spring 2012:
Maximum Temperature 31.7 °C
Minimum Temperature -7.2 °C
Average Daily High Temperature 18.1 °C (Long term average 15.6 °C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 6.1 °C  (Long term average 4.2 °C)
Total Precipitation 155.8 mm (Long term average 221.0 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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May 2012 Summary

Another hot and dry month

With 3 days that were more than 10 degrees hotter than average it is not surprising that overall the month was more than 3 degrees above average.  The last time we had a colder than average month was back in March of 2011 and the last time we had a May this warm was in 1998.

For the third month in a row we had below average precipitation, only 28.8 mm compared to the average of 75.7 mm for May.  In particular only 7.7 mm fell during the last half of the month.

So far this year we have had 208.6 mm of precipitation, this is far below the average of 340.2 mm.


Summary for May 2012:
Maximum Temperature 31.7°C
Minimum Temperature 1.5°C
Average Daily High Temperature 22.4°C (Long term average 18.7°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 9.0°C (Long term average 6.4°C)
Total Precipitation 28.8 mm (Long term average75.7 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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April 2012 Summary

A very dry April with average temperature


It was something that had never happened in the recorded weather history of our area: it was actually colder in April than it was in March.  However, April was still not colder than average, this speaks to just how incredibly warm it was during March.
 
There was a bit of hot streak in the middle of the month, but this was offset by a cooler end of the month. Overall, the temperature was 0.1 degree higher than average, thus it was certainly within the average range.

Once again it was very dry this month, only 28.9 mm compared to an average of 76.9 mm. This makes it the driest April since 1977 when we only got 25.5 mm.Of course this means we are even further behind for the annual total which stands at 179.9 mm compared to the average of 264.4 at this point in the year

.
Summary for April 2012:

Maximum Temperature 22.9°C
Minimum Temperature -4.6°C
Average Daily High Temperature 11.7°C (Long term average 11.2°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 0.2°C (Long term average 0.4°C)
Total Precipitation 28.9 mm (Long term average76.9 mm)
(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Wet day to start June

The 56.7 mm of rain we got on the first day of June was almost as much as we had during all of April and May (57.7 mm).

Downtime

Very sorry about this extended downtime of the website.

It seems that an administrative error caused out phone line to the weather station being cancelled.

Aparantly getting it back takes a lot longer than getting rid of it.

Once it is up again readings will be back.

March 2012 Summary

The warmest March on record with below average precipitation

In the race for the warmest March ever in the region it wasn’t even in close.  The previous record of 6.9 degrees warmer than average back in 1945 was eclipsed by this year’s 7.6 degrees.  Although most of the month was warm, it was the historical one week period in the middle that really made this month unique.  There were 7 days in a row of above 20 degrees, again beating 1945 when there were 4.  The high temperature on the 22nd of 26.4°C was the warmest temperature ever seen during the month of March in the region, beating out March 26, 1945 when it was 26.1°C.

One last point, although 1998 was the warmest calendar year in the area, the warmest 12 month period was between March 1931 and February 1932, with an average temperature of 9.26°C.  The second warmest was an average of 9.13°C between February 1931 and January 1932.  Right now the past 12 months are third on the list with an average temperature of 9.11°C.  By my calculations, if April is more than 1.6 degrees warmer than average, it will be the warmest 12 months on record in the region.

Kind of lost in the warm temperatures we have seen lately is the lack of precipitation since the beginning of the year.  With 39.3 mm in March it was far below the average of 70.6 mm and the year to date is only 151.7 mm compared to the average of 189.9 mm.

Summary for March 2012:
Maximum Temperature 26.4°C
Minimum Temperature -14.0°C
Average Daily High Temperature 12.3°C (Long term average 3.3°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -0.4°C (Long term average -5.8°C)
Total Precipitation 39.3 mm (Long term average 70.6 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Winter 2011-12 Summary

University of Waterloo Weather Station Summary - Winter 2011/2012

The warmest winter ever

I think the headline says it all, at almost 5 degrees above average it was the warmest winter we have seen since records began in the area almost 100 years ago.  This was about half a degree more than the previous warmest winter of 1931-32.

The heat was also consistent with every month of the season well above average.  The last week of winter felt more like summer with temperatures around 20 degrees higher than average.

The longest streak of below zero temperature was for 4 days, this is quite a contrast to last year when between January 1^st and February 13^th it only went above zero for a single day.

Not much to say about the precipitation, the total of 158.3 mm was not that far off of the average of 189.3 mm.  It was wetter at the beginning of the winter and started to get drier in the second half.

During the winter we had 71 cm of snow (note that this is not the total for the entire snowfall season which is longer) compared to the average of 103 cm.  I think it seemed like a lot less as any snow we did have didn’t last very long.

In the end of winter poll done on the UW weather station blog, a total of 271 people showed that it was very polarizing winter.  A total of 43% called it either a great or good winter while 40% thought it was bad or a total washout.

Summary for Winter 2011/2012:
Maximum Temperature  22.2°C
Minimum Temperature -18.3°C
Average Daily High Temperature 3.0°C (Long term average -1.5°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -4.7°C  (Long term average -9.9°C)
Total Precipitation 158.3 mm (Long term average 189.3 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

Records so far in March

There will probably be some more all time records once the month comes to an end, but this streak of hot weather is really unique in our history for March.  Assuming we get to the forecasted temperatures for the next few days here are some records ready to fall:

The highest March temperature I was able to find was 26.1°C on March 26, 1945.  We may get higher than that on both Wednesday and Thursday.

The longest streak of days over 20 degrees was 4 also back in 1945, we may get to 7 in a row.

At 23.5°C we have already seen the highest March temperature since March 8th, 2000 when it was 24.0°C (and the winning day of the very first weather station contest).

So we shall see how hot it actually gets over the next few days.

Winter 2011-2012 poll

We are probably going to only have a half of the snow of a typical winter and nobody has to tell you that it was a lot warmer than average.

But overall what did you think of the winter this year?

Cast your vote in the UW weather station winter 2010-2011 poll here.

Voting ends the first day of spring!

Warm spell ahead

The forecast for the area now has 7 days in a row of temperatures above 15 degrees.  I was not able to find this happening in the historical record for March.

February 2012 summary

The second warmest February on record with just barely average precipitation

Sorry to keep repeating myself, but yet another very warm month that was 4.5 degrees higher than average.  This makes it the second warmest February since records began in the area almost 100 years ago, and just a few tenths of a degree cooler than 1998 which was the warmest.  This is now the 11th month in a row with above average temperatures.

It was the second warmest meteorological winter (Dec-Jan-Feb) just beating 2001-2002, but a full degree off of the record which was back in 1931-32.  We will see how it stacks up against other astronomical winters in a few weeks.

It was the first month since August that we had less than average precipitation, but with 2.7 mm on the leap day of February 29th it put the month just barely into the average range.

Even with the warm weather the amount of snow that fell during the month (25 cm) was not that far below average (30.6 cm).  The total for the snowfall season has been 76 cm which is a little less than half of the average total of 160 cm.

Summary for February 2012:
Maximum Temperature 7.8°C
Minimum Temperature -14.6°C
Average Daily High Temperature 1.4°C (Long term average –2.0°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -5.2°C (Long term average -10.7°C)
Total Precipitation 34.4 mm (Long term average 51.3 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Website is having problems

I can't put this on the homepage so I'll put it here.  There are some internet problems with the University and as a result the weather station homepage is stuck at 2 am Sunday morning if you can connect to it at all.

Hopefully it will be resolved soon, but it is out of my hands.

Windiest day in 10 years

At 2:30 am on the morning of March 3rd the wind speed peaked at an 42 km/h (note that this is not the highest wind gust, but rather the average wind speed over the 15 minute measurement period).

This is the highest average wind speed since March 9th, 2002.  OK actually not quite 10 years but close enough.

Looking at historical records I found it interesting that although the windiest average month is January, a lot of the extreme wind records actually occur during the month of March.  This includes the highest wind gust at the Waterloo Wellington airport of 120 km/h on March 30, 1981.

The 2012 weather station contest has started!

The entry period for this year's UW weather station contest has now started.

Enter your guess for when the temperature will first go above 20 degrees.

All entries must be in by 2:00 pm on Friday, March 2nd.

Enter the contest here

January 2012 Summary

January was another warm month with average precipitation

For the third month in a row it was a little over three and half degrees warmer than average with only a couple (OK maybe three) cold days. However, just like last month we only have to go back to 2006 to find a warmer January when it was over 6 degrees above average.

There was a total of 72.5 mm of all kinds of precipitation during the month, which is a bit above the average of 64.4 mm, but still within the average range. In fact looking at the graph (see link below) it shows that it was consistently within the green average zone for most of the month.

The total snowfall of 30 cm was much less than the 43.5 cm of the average January, but perhaps not as little as one might have expected with the much higher temperatures.

Summary for January 2012:
Maximum Temperature 8.2°C
Minimum Temperature -18.3°C
Average Daily High Temperature 0.2°C (Long term average –3.1°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -6.9°C (Long term average -11.0°C)
Total Precipitation 72.5 mm (Long term average 64.4 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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Temperature Drop

In the 3 hours between 4:45 pm to 7:45 pm on Tuesday, the temperature fell from 8.2°C down to -2.8°C.

2011 Summary

The biggest weather story of the year in the region was that it was a very wet year.  With 1146.4 mm of total precipitation it was the 4th wettest year since records began in 1914 (the 3 wettest years were 1985-1186.4 mm, 1940-1174.9 mm, and 2008-1159.5 mm).

The only months that were significantly below average were June and July while all the spring and fall months were all very much above average.  This included the wettest April ever, the fifth wettest May, and the third wettest October.  The single day with the highest precipitation was November 29th with 52.1 mm.

In total there was 165.5 cm of snow during the calendar year of 2011, which is just a little more than the average of 159.5 cm.  The biggest one day snowfall of 26 cm happened on March 24th, this was the snowiest day in 3 years.

Overall the temperature for 2011 was a full degree above average putting it around the 14th warmest off all time.  However, it is worth looking at how the temperature varied between the first and second half of the year.  From January to June the temperature was half a degree colder than average while for July and December it was about 2.5 degrees warmer than average.  Each month in the second half of the year it was more than 1.5 degrees warmer than average, making it the warmest July to December period ever seen in the region.

On January 23rd, the high temperature during the day of -16.6°C was the coldest daytime high since January 15th of 2004.  The 35.7°C on July 21st was the highest temperature seen since August 8th, 2001 when it was 36.5°C.  Note that this high temperature was actually recorded at the Waterloo-Wellington Airport as the UW weather station unfortunately had been vandalized and was not accurately reading temperature at this time.

On the morning of October 23rd at 4:45 am the temperature went below zero for the first time since the spring and thus the frost free season went from May 1st to October 22nd which is a total of 175 days.  This was the longest frost free season since records began in the region in 1915, just beating out 1941 when there was a stretch of 174 days above zero.

Click on the image below to see the temperature chart:




Click on the image below to see the precipitation chart:

December 2011 Summary

December was much warmer and wetter than average

Yet another warm month, in fact there was only 1 day (the 10th) that was colder than average, making it just like November at 3.6 degrees warmer than average overall.  However, as we have seen many above average Decembers in the past 10 years, we only have to go back to 2006 to find a warmer one.

One interesting story was the lack of cold temperatures, the minimum temperature during the month was -9.9°C.  Only back in 1974 was there a December when the minimum temperature was higher (-7.8°C).

It was a consistently wet month with lots of days with some precipitation for a total of 94.0 mm compared to an average of 71.1 mm.  We saw 17.5 cm of snow during the month which is less than half of the average of 38.5 cm.

Summary for December 2011:
Maximum Temperature 11.9°C
Minimum Temperature -9.9°C
Average Daily High Temperature 2.7°C (Long term average -0.4°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -3.4°C (Long term average -7.5°C)
Total Precipitation 94.0 mm (Long term average 71.1 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

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