Swift Current records warmest December ever

Swift Current's exceptionally abnormal December weather-wise will be going down in history.

Last month the city recorded the warmest twelfth month out of the 139 years of record with an average temperature at -0.3, shattering the previous mark established in 1939 of -2.2.

The extremely mild 31 days saw Swift Current set four new daytime heat records (6th, 20th, 22nd, and 28th), with the temperature peaking at 12.8 C on December 6. The mercury rose above the freezing mark 27 days in December, a feat only reached four times in 2022.

Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the record-breaking month is noteworthy with weather stats in Swift Current dating back to 1885.

"It's pretty significant how warm this December was," she said. "The warmest temperature was 12.8 C on December 6, and the coldest was -12.8 C on December 1. It didn't get very cold, for it to not even hit -20 C in December is remarkable."

Another astounding statistic is Swift Current's November average temperature was -0.4, which was cooler than last month. Since April 5, 2023, October 30 holds the coldest day at -16.4 C.

"December was the warmest on record across a whole bunch of stations across Western Canada," she said. "One of our national climatologists crunched some of the numbers and said 2023 was the second warmest [year] since 1980. It's interesting that 2023 is the only year was above average throughout the entire country."

Swift Current also only received 0.5 millimetres of precipitation during December, 0.3 mm on 4th and 0.2 mm on 7th. That makes it the third driest December in the city's history behind 1952 (0.0 mm) and 1997 (0.2 mm).

"If you're a municipality and you're trying to save money on snow clearing [that's a good month]," she said.

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