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December 2011 Climate Report for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

December 2011 Highlights

New Records for December 2011

Saint Croix 

Date	New Record	Old Record
December 11th	A record daily rainfall of 0.94 inches.	This breaks the old record of 0.90 inches set in 1976.

 

December 2011 Statistics

 Average December Temperatures/Precipitation (NCDC 1981-2010 averages):

	San Juan	Saint Thomas	Saint Croix
High	83.9°F	85.6°F	84.7°F
Low	73.4°F	73.5°F	73.4°F
Avg. T	78.7°F	79.5°F	79.0°F
Pcpn.	5.02’’	2.96’’	2.97’’

  December 2011 Observations:

	San Juan	Saint Thomas	Saint Croix
High	83.2°F(-0.7°F)	84.6°F(-1.0°F)	82.8°F(-1.9°F)
Low	73.5°F(+0.1°F)	73.7°F(+0.2°F)	71.1°F(-2.3°F)
Avg. T	78.3°F(-0.4°F)	79.2°F(-0.3°F)	77.0°F(-2.0°F)
Pcpn.	8.19"(+3.17")	2.51" (-0.45")	3.06" (+0.09")

 December 2011 extremes:

	San Juan	Saint Thomas	Saint Croix
High	86°F December30th	87°F December30th	85°F December 30th
Low	71°F December 4th	70°F December 13th	70°F December 13th

 Rainfall Accumulations Year to Date (YTD)

     2011 ranks as the second wettest year in nearly 113 years of record keeping in the San Juan Metro Area. An impressive rainfall total of 88.15 inches was reported at the San Juan International Airport, which is 31.80 inches above normal. This total was 1.35 less than 2010, the wettest year on record. According to Cooperative Weather Observer data, 2011 was a wet year across the entire forecast area, with 126% of the normal precipitation falling across all of Puerto Rico and 121% of the normal precipitation falling across the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Not surprisingly, 2011 ranks as the ninth wettest year on record at Charlotte Amalie on Saint Thomas as well as at Christiansted Airport on Saint Croix with a rainfall total of 46.14 and 47.72 inches respectively.

   

  Figure A – Graphical Display of December 2011 precipitation across Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands derived from a combination of rain gage and radar data.

 

Figure B – Graphical Display of YTD precipitation across Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands derived from a combination of rain gage and radar data  

      

 

Sector	Rain	Normal	PON
	YTD	YTD
X North Coast	74.47	61.74	121%
X South Coast	46.32	33.63	138%
X North Slopes	78.81	62.75	126%
X South Slopes	71.91	61.43	117%
X East Interior	106.65	79.50	134%
X West Interior	100.06	80.80	124%
Puerto Rico Average	79.70	63.31	126%
X U.S. Virgin Islands	48.21	39.78	121%

PON= Percent of Normal YTD= Year to Date   

  Figure C – Display of YTD precipitation by climate sectors derived from rain gage data.

December Historical Statistics              

Highest December Temperatures on record:

San Juan	Saint Thomas	Saint Croix
94°F December 6th 1989	92°F December 26th 1995	92°F December 27th 1995
91°F December 24th 1995	92°F December 25th 1995	90°F December 10th 1998
91°F December 26th 1994	90°F December 11th 1995	90°F December 29th 1972

Lowest December Temperatures on record:

San Juan	Saint Thomas	Saint Croix
62°F December 29th 1917	62°F December 5th 1942	61°F December 29th 1982
63°F December 22nd 1964	63°F December 24th 1991	61°F December 24th 1964
63°F December 30th 1917	63°F December 27th 1972	62°F December 28th 1980

Wettest Decembers: 

San Juan	Saint Thomas	Saint Croix
16.81" December 1981	9.87" December 1960	14.03" December 1960
15.40" December 1910	7.45" December 1957	9.07" December 1975
12.64" December 1922	6.66" December 1981	7.86" December 2001

Driest Decembers:

San Juan	Saint Thomas	Saint Croix
0.68" December 1963	0.25" December 1985	0.37" December 2010
0.98" December 1925	0.63" December 1963	0.75" December 2008
1.02" December 1997	0.76" December 1956	0.79" December 1963

Decadal December Observations for San Juan, Puerto Rico

	2010-2011	2000’s	1990’s	1980’s	1970’s	1960’s
High	82.5°F	83.8°F	84.4°F	84.5°F	83.7°F	83.3°F
Low	72.8°F	72.8°F	72.5°F	72.4°F	73.3°F	71.1°F
Avg. T	77.7°F	78.3°F	78.5°F	78.4°F	78.5°F	77.2°F
Pcpn.	7.60"	5.19’’	4.08’’	5.36’’	4.57’’	4.54’’

Looking ahead toward the month of January

Average January Temperatures/Precipitation (NCDC 1981-2010 averages):

 

	San Juan	Saint Thomas	Saint Croix
High	83.2°F	85.1°F	84.0°F
Low	72.0°F	72.5°F	72.4°F
Avg. T	77.6°F	78.8°F	78.2°F
Pcpn.	3.76’’	2.38’’	2.14’’

 

 Moon/Sun/Tide Data for the Month of January 2012   

Sunrise/sunset data, phase of the moon, as well as tide data can all be found by going to the climate portion of the National Weather Service San Juan Climate homepage and then clicking on the astronomical tab.