December was cold and dry in Decorah

Decorah weather observer Richard Bernatz is confirming what we all suspected--December in Decorah was very cold.

Bernatz has some statistics to back up your hunches.  He says the average temperature in Decorah in December was 15.6 degrees--5.8 degrees cooler than average.  Below average high temperatures were recorded on 19 out of 31 days in December.

That meant your furnace was working hard--there were 1,531 heating degree days, nearly 200 more than average.

Total snowfall during December was 13 inches, 5.3 inches more than the average of 7.7 inches.  But the snow didn't have much moisture, so Decorah's precipitation total was 0.63 inches--0.54 inches less than normal.