Weather report for December 2022 and the year 2022
December is split in half
Cold from 1 to 18, without excess, then mild to exceptionally mild with some notes of sweetness on New Year’s Eve, December finally ends with a slight thermal surplus despite more than half the month having passed below normal.
The national monthly average temperature reached 6.8 degrees for the normal 6.2 degrees, a slight excess of 0.6 degrees. Of course, December 1950 remains the coldest December with a national average of 1.1 degrees, and 2015 was the warmest with 9.6 degrees. The national minimum was reached on the 17th in Buhl-Lorraine on the Moselle with -19.4 degrees. As for the national maximum, it was 26.3 degrees on Christmas Day, December 25 in Verdun, Ariège.
Record mildness also reigned on New Year’s Eve, December 31, with 20 degrees and more as far as Cantal (20.1 degrees in Riom-ès-Montagnes, best beating 17.5 degrees on December 17, 2015) as well as in Alsace (20.1 degrees in Guebwiller, ahead of 17.0 degrees on December 20, 1993)
seasonal rains
The cold weather was dry from the 1st to the 18th, with little rain generally and little snow on the plains apart from small episodes in the northeast. Mild weather due to a rapidly disturbed ocean current saw the return of rain, which quickly made up for the deficit of the first 18 days.
On the national average, 80 mm of rain falls short of the normal 77 mm. The surplus is therefore negligible (+4%). As a reminder, the driest month of December was 2016, with only 20 mm, and the wettest was 1981 with 141 mm in France.
Caixas (Pyrénées-Orientales) and Fitou (Aude) have the least rainfall: only 10 mm in the month.
In contrast, it fell to 397 mm in Restonica, at an altitude of 1,370 m in Corsica. For the plains, it was Coray, in Finistère, that held the record for the month with 277 mm of rain.
The sunlight is quite short
Gray, quite often during the cold, then often cloudy skies during the low pressure period slowed down the sunshine in this month of December 2022, which is quite dark compared to the usual.
The sun star actually appeared for 67 hours in a monthly national average for the normal 79 hours. The deficit therefore reached 15%. For the record, the extremes since 1946 are 44 hours of average monthly sunshine in December 2022 for the lowest and 119 hours in December 2016 for the highest.
Strasbourg enjoys 32 hours of sunshine, about one hour a day on average. So this is the least sunny city this December in France. The monthly maximum returns to Ajaccio with 136 hours of the sun’s star presence.
Annual report: record heat, drought and sun
The annual national average temperature reached 14.22 degrees, well beating the year 2020 and its 13.74 degrees. The annual excess is 1.56 degrees. Two months broke their heat record: May with 17.1 degrees versus 16.2 degrees in 1989 and 1999, and October with 16.9 degrees, beating 16.0 degrees in October 2001 and 2006.
Only January saw a monthly average deficit (-0.4 degree deviation from normal), while April was completely normal (0.0 degree deviation). The other ten months are too much, usually from May to August then in October-November.
For the record, the coldest year began in 1956 with a national average temperature of just 9.90 degrees.
drought
Rainfall is sparse and low most of the year with only four extreme months: June (stormy), September, November and December. France thus suffered fromsevere drought on the surface as well as in depth, with the added bonus of two months beating their drought record: May with 23 mm (compared to 24 mm in 2011) and July with just 8 mm beating 2020’s 12 mm.
In the end, the annual national average fell by a total of 613 mm in France for the normal 769 mm. The deficit is about 20%.
Since 1946, three years have been drier than this year: 1949 (592 mm), 1953 (576 mm) and above all 1989, a record year with only 550 mm. As a reminder, the year 1976 received 699 mm, the drought stopped dead at the end of August-beginning of September.
The wettest year remains 1960 and the 969 mm of rain. 2021 is a slight surplus (785 mm).
Strong sunlight
Apart from September and December, all other months of the year 2022 are experienced too much sunlight with a record month: July and its 351 hours of sunshine, beating 340 hours in 1949.
2022 ends with a total of 2,267 hours of sunshine over the national average for the normal 1,985 hours. Hence a surplus of 14% was recorded.
Since 1946, only three years have been more popular than 2022: 1989 (2272 hours), 1959 (2283 hours) and the record year 1949 (2309 hours). The weakest record still belongs to 2002 with only 1797 hours of sunshine in the country.
2022 now holds the new annual heat record in France, mainly beating the year 2020 by half a degree. Logically in a context very often punctuated by anticyclonic blockages, the drought is very marked although less than three years, both for very strong sunshine, less than three years since 1946. An exceptional year that continues to be registered in the context of the global warming still relevant, a phenomenon however “local”, the year 2022 still remains 2016 at the global level.
