Warm, dry December continues Las Vegas weather trend
The Southern Nevada trend to warmer and drier weather continued in December, according to the National Weather Service.
The average temperature of 49.5 degrees was 1.3 degrees above the December normal, continuing a yearlong trend of nearly each moth being hotter than the norm.
Only October and March saw an average monthly temperature below the norm, leaving 10 months warmer than normal.
Precipitation for December totaled 0.28 of an inch, 0.17 of an inch below the normal.
For 2021, precipitation for at Harry Reid International Airport finished at 1.86 inches, well below the norm of 4.18 inches.
Four of the past five years have seen precipitation below normal. The lone exception was 2019 when the airport recorded 6.87 inches.
“January of 2019 was very wet and on Valentine’s Day 2019 we had 1.1 inches in a big storm,” meteorologist Ashley Nickerson said. “Plus there were several dates in February and early March with a quarter of an inch or more.”
Total precipitation in 2020 was 2.35 inches. In 2018 it was 3.39 inches. In 2017 it was 2.38 inches.
In December, the warmest temperature was 75, reached on Dec. 1 and 5.
The coldest reading was 32 degrees on Dec. 11 and 19. The Dec. 11 freezing mark was the first time in 674 days that the airport fell to freezing, reaching it last on Feb. 6, 2020.
Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Marv_in_Vegas on Twitter.
