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Obviously 83F isn't the norm (in fact it's 2F from the monthly record high), but in December warm waves 70's and 80's do occur.
It just seems to be how winter works in the South. The warm anomalies when they occur seem to be less extreme than the cold anomalies when they occur. The January monthly record high in Houston is 24F above average, whereas the record low is 34F below average. Hypothetically, let's say your January average is 45F. If, in a hypothetical month, 20 days are 55F (+10 from average), and 10 days are 25F (-20 from average), the average for that month is 45F, right on the nose for the average despite below-average weather being rarer. In the real world it works like that on a larger scale (30+ years worth of Januaries) with smaller anomalies.
That's a little confusing, but I kinda get what you're saying. The record low in Memphis is -13F (Well below zero), but temperatures rarely go below zero, last time was December 1989. The record high is only 108F, but temperatures get to 100F or above nearly every summer, last time it DIDN'T happen was the summer of 2004. That's kind of how it works, for the North and South.
Last edited by cloudcrash619; 12-03-2012 at 03:22 PM..
Reason: Adding a sentence
That's a little confusing, but I kinda get what you're saying. The record low in Memphis is -13F (Well below zero), but temperatures rarely go below zero, last time was December 1989. The record high is only 108F, but temperatures get to 100F or above nearly every summer, last time it DIDN'T happen was the summer of 2004. That's kind of how it works, for the North and South.
Your location says "Northwest Mississippi". Are you in one of the Memphis suburbs?
Of all southern cities, I'd say that Memphis is probably closest to my ideal climate.
That's a little confusing, but I kinda get what you're saying. The record low in Memphis is -13F (Well below zero), but temperatures rarely go below zero, last time was December 1989. The record high is only 108F, but temperatures get to 100F or above nearly every summer, last time it DIDN'T happen was the summer of 2004. That's kind of how it works, for the North and South.
I remember that one well. Dec. of 1963. It started snowing Sunday morning and it was pretty cold, around 21°. It snowed all day and Memphis had a blockbuster 15" snowfall as temperatures fell. The snow cover with clear skies and calm wind a couple of nights later gave us the phenomenal temperature.
December of 1989 was a brutal one with a long stretch of a week or so that the temperature stayed well below freezing. The pipes froze in one of my rental houses and it was a catastrophe. December 1983 was another very cold month, Christmas day the temps did not get out of the low single digits for HIGHS.
The only real change I've noticed here lately is that winters have been starting very abruptly. It used to be that ground froze over in November and then a snowpack gradually built up. Now it's above average warmth all fall followed by a sudden massive blizzard that drops half a meter of snow and starts winter in a day. Sure enough, this happened again about a week ago when temps dropped from +7°C -15°C and two consecutive blizzards brought more than 30 cm of snow.
The result is massive amounts of mosquitoes and ticks in the summer as ground doesn't properly freeze before a thick layer of snow builds on it, keeping it warm enough for larvae to survive. About ten years ago it got to -25°C for several days before any snow fell. The following summer was virtually absent of any bugs. Nowadays mosquito nets and bug spray are a necessity unless you want to be eaten alive.
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