Weather report. 14°C in Côte-d’Or on December 21, the first day of winter: is this normal?
How far away those days when mercury never crosses 0°C in many towns in Côte-d’Or. A Saulieu, this happened 7 times since the beginning of the month. However, this was still the case last weekend. Before a sudden change.
More high pressure to hold back the cold
In Dijon, the maximum jumped 13°C between Sunday (1°C) and Monday (14.1°). A rapid contrast explained at the beginning of the week by Stéphane Nedeljkovitch, meteorologist at MétéoNewher our colleagues from the Journal de Saône-et-Loire.
“The cold that came from Siberia, then from the North Pole, remained static over Europe for three weeks. The air masses were not moving. The influx of mild, moist air from the Atlantic blew up the anticyclone. Cold air was locked on the ground by this high but a few locks popped and flows arriving from the southwest brought the mild air back. »
Up to 14°C this Wednesday
This Wednesday, December 21, the first day of the calendar winter (the meteorological winter began on December 1), it is therefore the mildness that dominates throughout the Côte-d’Or. Tonight and at daybreak, the lows were between 8 and 10°C. In the afternoon, expect values ranging from 12 to 14°C, with the exception of Saulieu where you will have to settle for around ten degrees. Temperatures that undergo the ”normal” of the season of around 7°C!
Is it exceptional?
If all December 21 were not so mild – it was 0.5°C in Dijon a year ago – this end-of-year mildness should not be too worrying. It is indeed not uncommon to see such high temperatures during the second half of December in the department. We can cite this December 16, 1989 during which the mercury had reached 17°C in Dijon and even 17.9°C in Châtillon-sur-Seine.
In the archives of the Dijon-Longvic meteorological station, we can also find 16.7°C on December 30, 2021 and values around 16°C in 1983, 1989 or 2019. However, if this end-of-year mildness has could always exist, this one is more frequent these last years…
And then ?
Like the episode of cold that settled in mid-December, this mildness should accompany us for several more days. According to the latest expenditure, the mercury will show above 10°C in the afternoon, throughout the Côte-d’Or, until Monday, December 26.
Before a new change that led to a noticeable drop in temperatures. Already Tuesday 27, it will not be necessary to wait more than 4 to 6°C. And the next day, the maximum should not exceed 3°C. Values that will rise a little in the following days to stabilize around 6°C and which should not move too much before the start of 2023.