This Christmas is unlikely to resemble a winter wonderland.
Toasty and dry conditions are expected to persist for the coming weeks in Dallas-Fort Worth, according to the Climate Prediction Center, a part of the National Weather Service. And it’s not just North Texas that will be seeing the impact — almost all of the continental United States is expected to get warmer than normal temperatures this Christmas. Only New England is expected to be spared a toasty holiday.
For the period from Dec. 23-29, much of Texas and Oklahoma have a 90%-100% chance of above normal temperatures. But notably, the center’s forecasts don’t speak to just how far above normal the temperature will be, merely whether conditions are expected to be above, below or near normal.
For DFW International Airport, the “normal” high for late December is 56 degrees. The normal temperatures are calculated using 30-year averages of weather data collected between 1991-2020. While detailed forecasts for the end of the month aren’t available yet, North Texas is predicted to have highs in the low-70s early next week, about 15 degrees above normal.
D-FW Weather Wise
This year isn’t the only one in recent memory that’s been hotter than we’d expect. In fact, only three out of the last 10 years have had temperatures near or below normal when looking at the second half of December. Several years have had an average temperature around 60 degrees for the end of the month, but a few have jumped even higher.
2021 was the hottest December on record in Dallas-Fort Worth, according to data from the National Weather Service. The latter half of the month was no different, when the average temperature was almost 73 degrees. Last year was also quite toasty, with an average late December high of 66 degrees.
Forecasters don’t have a clear idea of when chilly days will return, but if the winter of 2021-2022 is to be any indication, average temperatures were much closer to normal in January.