December 2012 Week One Recap!

Let me see now... are there two b's in the term Global Warming. Guess not. For a month that averages somewhere around 34°F. Down here in southwest Missouri, the first week's average of 53 degrees was beyond belief! During this first week of meteorological winter, four out of the seven days saw temperatures of in excess of seventy degrees. The big question in my mind one of climatic payback or averaging as it were. History dictates that whenever something swings too far in one direction, you can bet you'll experience some event that will balance it out in the future. For instance, in order for the month to end up somewhere near the normal average of 35°F, that means that the balance of the month (the next three weeks) would have to average somewhere in the high teens to make the whole month average out to 'normal'. Think about that for a second. We're talking daytime temps somewhere around 30°F with lows that would be dropping into the single digits. (Think January with an edge), Now, in all likelihood, that happening is not very likely. What is likely will be that this December will come and go as perhaps a bit warmer than average and hopefully the temperatures will settle down into a more normal pattern. That's what's likely at any rate.

On a more promising note, the rainfall, which has amounted to about an inch so far (normal for the month is about 4 inches) , looks a heck of a lot better than the disaster that was November.