Daily high temperatures decrease by 7°F, from 26°F to 19°F, rarely falling below -5°F or exceeding 40°F.
Daily low temperatures decrease by 7°F, from 8°F to 1°F, rarely falling below -22°F or exceeding 25°F.
For reference, on July 26, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Killam typically range from 51°F to 76°F, while on January 1, the coldest day of the year, they range from 1°F to 19°F.
Average High and Low Temperature in December
The daily average high (red line) and low (blue line) temperature, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted lines are the corresponding average perceived temperatures.
The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on December. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.
Average Hourly Temperature in December
The average hourly temperature, color coded into bands: frigid < 15°F < freezing < 32°F < very cold < 45°F < cold < 55°F < cool < 65°F < comfortable < 75°F < warm < 85°F < hot < 95°F < sweltering. The shaded overlays indicate night and civil twilight.
The month of December in Killam experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 64% throughout the month.
The clearest day of the month is December 8, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 37% of the time.
For reference, on February 20, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 67%, while on July 30, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 64%.
Cloud Cover Categories in December
The percentage of time spent in each cloud cover band, categorized by the percentage of the sky covered by clouds: clear < 20% < mostly clear < 40% < partly cloudy < 60% < mostly cloudy < 80% < overcast.
A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Killam, the chance of a wet day over the course of December is essentially constant, remaining around 6% throughout.
For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 32% on June 27, and its lowest chance is 5% on February 13.
Probability of Precipitation in December
The percentage of days in which various types of precipitation are observed, excluding trace quantities: rain alone, snow alone, and mixed (both rain and snow fell in the same day).
We report snowfall in liquid-equivalent terms. The actual depth of new snowfall is typically between 5 and 10 times the liquid-equivalent amount, assuming the ground is frozen. As with rainfall, we consider the liquid-equivalent snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.
The average sliding 31-day liquid-equivalent snowfall during December in Killam is essentially constant, remaining about 0.2 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 0.6 inches or falling to 0.0 inches.
Average Monthly Liquid-Equivalent Snowfall in December
The average liquid-equivalent snowfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average rainfall.
Over the course of December in Killam, the length of the day is gradually decreasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day decreases by 17 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 34 seconds, and weekly decrease of 3 minutes, 56 seconds.
The shortest day of the month is December 21, with 7 hours, 36 minutes of daylight and the longest day is December 1, with 7 hours, 59 minutes of daylight.
Hours of Daylight and Twilight in December
The number of hours during which the Sun is visible (black line). From bottom (most yellow) to top (most gray), the color bands indicate: full daylight, twilight (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and full night.
The earliest sunrise of the month in Killam is 8:17 AM on December 1 and the latest sunrise is 23 minutes later at 8:39 AM on December 30.
The earliest sunset is 4:11 PM on December 13 and the latest sunset is 10 minutes later at 4:21 PM on December 31.
Daylight saving time is observed in Killam during 2018, but it neither starts nor ends during December, so the entire month is in standard time.
For reference, on June 21, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:02 AM and sets 16 hours, 53 minutes later, at 9:55 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 8:37 AM and sets 7 hours, 36 minutes later, at 4:13 PM.
Sunrise & Sunset with Twilight and Daylight Saving Time in December
The solar day over the course of December. From bottom to top, the black lines are the previous solar midnight, sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and the next solar midnight. The day, twilights (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and night are indicated by the color bands from yellow to gray.
We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.
The chance that a given day will be muggy in Killam is essentially constant during December, remaining around 0% throughout.
For reference, on July 17, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 1% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.
Humidity Comfort Levels in December
The percentage of time spent at various humidity comfort levels, categorized by dew point: dry < 55°F < comfortable < 60°F < humid < 65°F < muggy < 70°F < oppressive < 75°F < miserable.
This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.
The average hourly wind speed in Killam is essentially constant during December, remaining within 0.1 miles per hour of 10.5 miles per hour throughout.
For reference, on January 30, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 10.8 miles per hour, while on August 2, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 8.2 miles per hour.
Average Wind Speed in December
The average of mean hourly wind speeds (dark gray line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.
The hourly average wind direction in Killam throughout December is predominantly from the west, with a peak proportion of 47% on December 12.
Wind Direction in December
The percentage of hours in which the mean wind direction is from each of the four cardinal wind directions (north, east, south, and west), excluding hours in which the mean wind speed is less than 1 mph. The lightly tinted areas at the boundaries are the percentage of hours spent in the implied intermediate directions (northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest).
Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).
The growing season in Killam typically lasts for 3.8 months (118 days), from around May 19 to around September 14, rarely starting before April 29 or after June 6, and rarely ending before August 28 or after September 29.
The month of December in Killam is reliably fully outside of the growing season.
Time Spent in Various Temperature Bands and the Growing Season in December
The percentage of time spent in various temperature bands: frigid < 15°F < freezing < 32°F < very cold < 45°F < cold < 55°F < cool < 65°F < comfortable < 75°F < warm < 85°F < hot < 95°F < sweltering. The black line is the percentage chance that a given day is within the growing season.
Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.
The average accumulated growing degree days in Killam are essentially constant during December, remaining around 1,357°F throughout.
Growing Degree Days in December
The average growing degree days accumulated over the course of December, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.
This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.
The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Killam is essentially constant during December, remaining within 0.1 kWh of 0.8 kWh throughout.
The lowest average daily incident shortwave solar energy during December is 0.8 kWh on December 19.
Average Daily Incident Shortwave Solar Energy in December
The average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground per square meter (orange line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.
For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Killam are 52.783 deg latitude, -111.852 deg longitude, and 2,234 ft elevation.
The topography within 2 miles of Killam is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 85 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 2,232 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (699 feet). Within 50 miles contains significant variations in elevation (1,053 feet).
The area within 2 miles of Killam is covered by cropland (96%), within 10 miles by cropland (97%), and within 50 miles by cropland (93%).
This report illustrates the typical weather in Killam year round, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016.
Temperature and Dew Point
There are 2 weather stations near enough to contribute to our estimation of the temperature and dew point in Killam.
The estimated value at Killam is computed as the weighted average of the individual contributions from each station, with weights proportional to the inverse of the distance between Killam and a given station.
All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid.
The information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site.
We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands.
We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader.