Monitoring Tsunami Impacts Across the Pacific; Air Quality Concerns; Dangerous Heat; Critical Fire Weather for the West

Tsunami impacts continue for portions of the Pacific basin. Wildfire smoke causes unhealthy air in Midwest to Great Lakes. Heat dome spans Mississippi Valley to Mid-Atlantic with excessive heat warnings and advisories. Critical fire weather in Great Basin to Pacific Northwest (dry thunderstorms). Cold front spawns severe storms/heavy rain in Central U.S. today, shifts to East Coast Thursday. Read More >

Overview and Graphics
Monthly Summary
Records

Overview and Graphics

December 2018 Climate Review: Above normal temperatures were common throughout much of the month with temperatures finishing 4 to 5 degrees above normal. This was a nice change after the cold November. In fact, the average temperature for the month was actually the exact same in both November and December in Evansville, and nearly the same in Paducah. Typically, December temperatures average around 11 degrees colder than November.

As for precipitation, the month finished wetter than normal across a large portion of the region, particularly across sections of southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, and the Pennyrile region of western Kentucky. Drier than normal conditions were observed across portions of southeast Missouri and the Jackson Purchase area of west Kentucky. With the lack of cold air much of the month, very little to no snow fell. This was the 4th consecutive December to finish with no measurable snow in Paducah. Evansville did pick up around 1 inch of snow on December 4th into the 5th. The year ended with a bang, with a line of thunderstorms producing damaging winds across the region during the late morning and early afternoon hours on New Year’s Eve Day.

The graphic below is an interpolated rainfall map using actual observations. Please note that there are likely discrepancies in between observations, since the values are estimated based on nearest reports.