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Northeast Regional Climate Center |
This month came within 0.2 degrees of the record for warmest December in the Northeast. The average temperature for the region was 35.3 degrees, 6.8 degrees above normal. Five states set new individual state records. Of the New England states, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont all broke their old records. In Connecticut the temperature was a balmy 37.6 degrees which is 6.4 degrees above normal for that state. New Hampshire set a new record of 31.4 degrees, 7.1 above normal. Vermont, which had never recorded an average December temperature over 30 degrees, set a new record with an average temperature of 30.4 degrees. The other two states setting a record were New York and New Jersey with new records of 33.8 and 41.7 degrees, respectively. Maine had the highest temperature departure this month with 8.5 degrees, but fell 0.5 degrees short of its record. Rhode Island had the lowest temperature departure at 5.3 degrees. Both Maine and Rhode Island were second on their record lists for warmest December. The rest of the region was between 5.4 and 6.2 degrees above normal for the month. This month was one of ten months above normal in temperature in 2001.
All 12 states across the Northeast were drier than normal this December. Overall the region was 0.86 inches below the normal 3.35 inches of precipitation. With the exception of Maryland and Massachusetts, all the states totaled between 2 and 3 inches on the month. That translates into 57% to 84% of normal. Maryland, with 1.94 inches, was the lone state below 2 inches total. Massachusetts was the least dry state this December recording 3.18 inches of precipitation, still 0.80 inches under the average. This was the sixth dry month in a row, and the tenth dry month in the year 2001.
Monthly Summary of State Temperature and Precipitation Averages.