The Warmest December Days on Record for Each New England State

It appears New England is starting to settle into its normal winter weather pattern. Though as veteran meteorologist Mark Rosenthal cautions, it’s generally unwise to operate under the impression that there exists a “normal” in terms of New England weather.

While October brought weather that ranged from frigid to summerlike, November, at times, was downright balmy. And Rosenthal says the long-term forecast continues to be virtually nonexistent, as computers used to forecast the winter months are in unprecedented disagreement.

But if things were to warm up around Christmas, it wouldn’t be the first time, at least not in the Seacoast. I vividly remember Christmas Eve 1996, when I spent the day wearing shorts before sweating it out in a dress shirt at Mass in Rye.

The following Christmas was similarly muggy.

In 2015, it felt like early September, with the warm weather accentuated by the sun sitting low in the sky. Instead of Christmas, it felt like an episode of The Twilight Zone where the fiery ball was headed right towards us.

Then, there come the questions from your kids. “How is Santa going to land on the roof without any snow?” “Are you sure that’s enough water for the reindeer?” “Really? Santa wants a Margarita?”

It just feels weird. Even on vacation in the islands, it seemed bizarre and uncomfortable to be a New Englander in a warm weather Christmas. So I wondered, just what were the warmest December days on record in each New England state?

Thanks to some help from ClimateSpy, this is what I found.