THUNDER BAY — December 2023 was the warmest December in recorded history in Thunder Bay.
Environment Canada data released Tuesday shows the average daily maximum at Thunder Bay Airport last month was about 2 C, or two degrees higher than the previous average daily high.
Meteorologist Steven Flisfeder said the old record of zero was established in 2015.
"It is fairly significant, especially when we're looking at long time scales," Flisfeder remarked.
"The average [daily high in December] would be minus 5.3 C. It's a huge difference."
The average mean temperature last month was -2 C, which broke the previous record of -3.4 C set in 2015 and easily surpassed the long-term average mean of -9.5 C.
Flisfeder said El Nino is one of the contributing factors, as it typically leads to milder winters in Northwestern Ontario.
"Whether or not it's the only factor, we can't really say at this time. It would take attribution studies which are done post-factum."
December also saw three new individual daily maximum temperature records established at Thunder Bay Airport.
Near-normal temperatures are forecast for the coming days, but he said some weather models point to another period of warming toward the latter part of January.
