Look outside.  It's a brown Christmas and not a white one.  El Nino, or a warming of the Pacific waters, is a big reason for this. We have a big ridge of high pressure influencing our weather pattern, at least for now.  On average, the temperature for December is running close to 39.5 degrees.  It should be close to 28 degrees.  This makes it the warmest December on record.  The old record occurred in 1889 when the monthly average was 38.2 degrees.

Looking back at previous El Nino years, it's interesting to note the record high for Christmas Day came in 1982 when we hit 61 degrees.  This was an unusually strong El Nino.  And then the next year, during Christmas, there was record cold in place.  The low temperature on this date was -12 degrees. 

As we get into a new year, it looks like we're getting back to seasonable levels with highs near 30 and lows in the teens and 20s.  But it doesn't look like any extreme cold is coming anytime soon.  Stay tuned!