According to the NOAA, December 2013 was only the 21st warmest out of 119. That means 98 Decembers (out of 119) were warmer.
The 5 warmest Decembers were 1939, 1957, 1933, 1941 and 1946.
OMG. 2.04°F Below Normal. We are all going to freeze to death if this keeps happening.
sunshine hours 
I’ve done some research on December. You know how they tell us that a lack of cold in December or November has resulted in the pine beetle explosion? Well, it’s complete bunk because December has not warmed at all in BC. As a matter of fact, all the warming in the winter has occurred in late winter, which, according to experts, does nothing to stop the beetle’s spread. In most of Canada December was cold. There were a few exceptions (as there always are) like Smithers or Bella Coola. 2013 was the warmest year on record in Smithers, BTW.
Here is a comparison of the 30 year running average temperature in Vancouver for both the months of January and December. Notice that December hasn’t changed in over 50 years, and that it is now the coldest month of the year… https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1510403_10152084333741628_924954310_n.jpg
I understand Smithers has the new NAV Canada hourly station. So is it really warmest or is it just the new equipment?
I would say that it is hard to say for sure if it is the warmest on record, but it was surely close. That area of the world was very warm last year. Bella Coola and Puntzi Mountain were also record warm. I suspect that a few other stations in the would have been at record values if they hadn’t crapped out, as Environment Canada stations tend to do quite frequently. Most of Canada was colder than normal, though not in BC or the Yukon. I can only estimate the Yukon because every single weather station with a 1981-2010 normal in the Yukon has too much missing data to derive an average for 2013 (I set the bar 3 or less days per month at the most even though EC can allow up to 5 if they aren’t consecutive).
I used to do Canadian data. But it is a joke.
http://climate.weather.gc.ca/prods_servs/cdn_climate_summary_e.html
32C for Fernie. Click on the link. -29C Min that day. Every other day (of the sparse data) is under 10C for the max.
Weather Undergound had day at -22 / -32 in Sparwood.
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/CWSW/2013/12/15/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar
Worked many years ago at Eureka, NU, and the other day I was looking at the hourly temps…and they had +28C…of course it was wrong, should have been -28, and I checked just tonight, and they have corrected it now…
“According to the NOAA, December 2013 was only the 21st warmest out of 119”. That to me means that according to the NOAA 98 Decembers were COOLER than 2013. Are you sure you’ve got the wording of your opening sentence right? to make sense, Dec. 2013 would be the 21st COOLEST out of 119. Meh!
Fair enough. I should make it clear that 119 out of 119 is the warmest on the NOAA ranking scale.
Ah! 2 nations divided by a common language once more. 😦 Thanks for answering my query.
It’s funny… Lamestream media will only report temperatures above the line. 🙂