DETROIT – The numbers are in: This past December was far from a normal winter month for Metro Detroit.
According to data published on New Year’s Day by the National Weather Service, the average temperature for the Detroit area in December 2023 was 40.1 degrees. It was the third-warmest December on record for the city, officials said.
Those above-freezing temperatures also meant the metro area saw virtually no snow.
In total, 0.1 inches of snow were recorded for the month of December in Detroit. The NWS said it was the second-least snowy December on record, coming in after an even less snowy December 2014.
This past December doesn’t represent a normal December in Detroit, when comparing it to data from the last 50 years.
From 1969-2022, the month of December saw, on average, 10.05 inches of snowfall. January was typically the snowiest month in Detroit, with an average of 12.57 inches of snow, while February was typically the second-snowiest month with an average of 11.46 inches of snowfall.
There have been a few Decembers in Detroit’s history that saw whopping numbers: In December 1974, Detroit recorded 34.9 inches of snow. Even more recent, in December 2000, the region received 25.1 inches of snow.
Over the last several decades, winter snow totals in Detroit have gone back and forth, dropping one year just to spike the next. For example, before the least-snowy December in Detroit’s history occurred in the winter of 2014, the region recorded the most snow it’s seen in decades during the 2013-2014 winter season.
For December 2023, Detroit wasn’t the only Michigan region affected by the above-average temperatures and below-average snowfall. Both the cities of Flint and Saginaw had some of their least-snowy Decembers, as well. The cities also “experienced their second warmest Decembers on record,” the NWS said.
It seems as though the snow drought in Southeast Michigan will continue into 2024. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center predicts the Great Lakes Region will have above-normal temperatures and a below-normal likelihood of precipitation in January.
---> Where’s the snow? Here’s your Michigan weather outlook for January 2024