Dec 29, 2015 3 min read

Are you wearing your shorts or bathing suit for New Year’s Eve? It sure doesn’t feel like the end of December in Southwestern Pennsylvania, but hardly anyone is complaining.

I, too, have been enjoying the lack of ice and snow on the roads and the delay in breaking out the gloves and hats. The short list of those who aren’t happy with this exceptionally warm weather include snow plow drivers, avid skiers and snowboarders (like me), season pass-holders to snowless local ski resorts and the owners of said resorts. While this group cries in our champagne on an unseasonably mild New Year’s Eve, local golfers may still be teeing off. At this rate, we may be mowing the lawn next week. So, just in time for your New Year’s Eve parties, here are some fun 2015 climate tidbits you can sprinkle into your party banter:

Cold winter – How soon we forget! January, February and March all averaged colder than normal, with February ending a whopping 12.8 degrees below normal at Pittsburgh International Airport. This put February 2015 in the record books as the second coldest on record in Pittsburgh.

Spring thaw – After a cold winter, April wound up two degrees warmer than normal. Every month since then was warmer than average except for August, which ended only 0.2 degrees below normal. Both May and September were the 11th warmest of those months on record in Pittsburgh.

Warm fall – Mild temperatures gave us the sixth warmest autumn on record for Pittsburgh. November went into the record books as the fourth warmest ever recorded here. We still have a couple of days to go in December, but as of this writing we’re giving the record for warmest December (1889) a run for its money. Our average temperature is 44.8, which is 12.1 degrees above normal and less than a degree cooler than first place. We set a new record high on the 23rd of 64 degrees and fell shy of a record on Christmas Eve by only three degrees.

Let It Snow? – The mild air put a lid on snowfall so far this season, with only 0.3 inches measured so far. That’s 9.8 inches below average for the season and incredible, considering we average 8.3 inches in December alone. Overall, we’ve had 40.56 inches of precipitation this year, which is 2.54 inches above average.

Highs and lows – 2015 had one month (February) on the top five coldest list and two months on the top five warmest lists (November and December) for Pittsburgh. Overall, the combination of a cold winter and a warm rest of the year means the average temperature sits at 52.49, which doesn’t even crack the top 15 warmest years on record. That honor goes to 1921. Yes, this year’s mild temperatures were unusual but not unprecedented. Remember 2012? That was the seventh warmest year on record at Pittsburgh and averaged about two degrees warmer than this year.

Happy New Year!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.