December 2022 Weather Recap: Rainy Month Ends With Wild Temperature Swings
December 2022 was the rainiest month of the year and also featured the coldest reading of all of 2022; this reading of 7° was the coldest temperature in December since 1989. The month's s other stand-out weather story unfolded during its last nine days when there were wild swings in temperature. Overall, the month's average temperature was 0.6 degrees below average (average high was just about average, while the average low was a degree below average.).
From 12/24 to 12/30 temperatures swung from 25 degrees below average (7° on 12/24) to 21 degrees above average (62° on 12/30). But the wildest swing was on 12/23 when the mercury plunged 50 degrees between 4 AM and midnight, from 58° to 8°. This was the greatest daily change in temperature on record (breaking a 101-year record, of 48 degrees in March 1921).
This was just the fourth December to be the wettest month of a year (the other years were 1957 <5.26">; 1973 <"9.98">; and 2019 <7.09">). Although the amount of precipitation measured, 5.83", was 1.45" above average (making it the 20th wettest December on record), it was about three inches less than the average amount of a year's wettest month.
Three rainstorms in December produced more than an inch of rain. The last of them, on 12/22-23, produced the most, with 2.06" measured. Much of the rain (1.33") came down in an hour when a blast of Arctic air collided with a fast-moving coastal storm in the pre-dawn hours of 12/23.
Although a typical December averages nearly five inches of snow, this December had no measurable snow (LGA and Newark, however, had 0.4" and 0.1", respectively). This was the 21st December with no snow and the 14th in which neither November or October had measurable snow (the previous time this happened was in 2015).
December had two days with lows in the 50s, which was the most such days since Dec. 2015 (the mildest December on record), which had 11. This December also had seven days with highs of 55° or warmer, which was one less than Dec. 2021 (which was 4.3 degrees above average) and one more than 2020 (which was 1.7 above average).
Christmas Eve was sunny and bitterly cold (high/low of 15°/7°, with sub-zero wind chill) while one week later New Years Eve was mild (high/low of 55°/50°) and foggy with showers. Christmas Day was sunny and cold (28°/14°) but relatively bearable compared to Christmas Eve.
Here are December recaps from the previous seven years:
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