Peter Finlayson
Ormstown Weatherman
December stayed the course right through to the end — dry and warm. Even the 10 cm of snow that fell on Jan. 2 didn’t change the overall picture much.
The average temperature for December came in at -1.7 degrees C, pretty much the same as the week before and way above the monthly normal of -4.5 C. December 2020 now stands as the sixth warmest in the last 54 years of record-keeping at the Ormstown weather station.
The year 2020 ended up as the second warmest on record with an average temperature of +8.3 C, a shade behind the record set in 2012 of +8.5 C. The year was marked by significant swings in temperature, with a very cool May and a very hot July followed by a very warm September.
December 2020 was yet another dry month, with only 43 mm of total precipitation, about half of normal. This was made up of 27 mm of rain and 16 cm of snow.
There were also significant swings in precipitation in 2020, with the mid-April to mid-June period being very dry, while August and October were very wet. Overall, 2020 ended up as a slightly dry year with 913 mm of precipitation, compared to the normal of 1035 mm.
The forecast for January 2021 is much the same, with warmer than normal temperatures, particularly at night, and not a lot of precipitation, neither snow or rain.