December 2023 a record setting month in Sioux Lookout

Tim Brody - Editor

According to Environment Canada Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Steven Flisfeder, record setting daytime highs and nighttime lows were recorded at the Sioux Lookout Airport in December.
“The average daytime high this past December was -1.7 degrees Celsius. That is a record. The previous record was -4.6 degrees Celsius back in 2015, so it beats the old record by a pretty substantial amount,” he informed.
“Average overnight low was -9 degrees Celsius. That’s also a record this past December. The previous record was -11.1 degrees Celsius, also in 2015,” he added.
Flisfeder said that using data from Environment Canada’s latest climate period 1991 to 2020, the average daytime high in Sioux Lookout for December is -8.5 degrees Celsius, while the average nighttime low for December is -17 degrees Celsius.
Record setting observations were also recorded at the Sioux Lookout airport for lack of precipitation during the month of December.
Discounting 2016 and 2017, which were missing data, Flisfeder said for the month of December, “What was reported at the airport was a total of 3.2 centimeters of snow, with a liquid equivalent of 3.2 millimeters, so definitely a deficit compared to what it should be… This is a record low, those two years aside.”
He said the average precipitation for December in Sioux Lookout should be 36.7 milimetres, liquid equivalent.
“This is an El Nino winter, and it does coincide with what we would expect with El Nino for Northwestern Ontario in particular. In an El Nino winter we’d be expecting warmer than normal temperatures, that’s certainly what the data so far for December has indicated. Whether that’s the only contributing factor, it’s too soon to say, but is certainly one of the contributing factors.”