While December 2017 has been on the mild side, we don’t have to go back too many years for some very cold readings. December 1983 is the coldest on record. The state-wide AVERAGE temperature was just 16 °F! On December 18th, 1983 Dodge City started a cold spell where temperatures didn’t get above 4 °F for a week. On December 25th, the temperatures warmed to 12 °F – not exactly WARM. In Manhattan, four of the seven days didn’t see highs above zero. On the other side of the scale, 1957 had a very warm December, with a state-wide average temperature of 38.5 °F. That year Manhattan didn’t have any subzero readings in December and Christmas Day saw a high of 55 °F and a low of 33 °F.
Mary Knapp, Weather Data Library
mknapp@ksu.edu