Midwest Weekly Highlights - December 16-22, 2014

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Mild Weather for Week Three

The third week of December delivered warmer than normal temperatures across the region ranging from 2 °F (Ohio River Valley and southern Missouri) to 7 °F to 12 °F degrees above the mean (Minnesota and Wisconsin) (Figure 1). Record temperatures were set for highest minimum temperatures across the heartland of the region - northern Illinois, north-central Indiana, and central Michigan - on December 16th (Figure 2). Average maximum temperatures remained on the warmer side across the northern states and near normal to slightly colder than normal across the southern states.  All around, average temperatures ranged from the 20s (°F) in the north to the 30s and 40s across the south (Figure 3).
 

Mostly Dry

Accumulated precipitation for the week remained below 0.5” (Figure 4) across much of the region, only surpassing 1.0” from lake effect snowfall events along the lake shores (Figure 5). Climatologically, this leaves Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa slightly above the mean amount of precipitation normal for the week, whereas the remaining states were below normal for accumulated precipitation (Figure 6). 24 hour records for highest snowfall were recorded December 17-18th across Missouri.

For the month accumulated snowfall has remained below 0.5” except across the north and in Missouri (Figure 7). In reference to the mean, this is slightly below normal with northern states 5” to 10” below normal for this time of year. 
 

-OBK-