December 1983: The coldest December on Record By Joe Sheehan (retired) National Weather Service Sioux Falls, SD Many comparisons have been made between the strong El Nino years of 1982-1983 and 1997-1998. While many similarities exist during these respective winter months, both had mild winters and above normal precipitation during the spring, lets hope one pattern doesn't repeat itself.

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The following December in 1983 saw an unprecedented cold wave that not only broke records for the coldest December on record by several degrees, but also broke records for the longest continuous period with temperatures of zero degrees or colder in both Sioux Falls and Sioux City. A snowstorm occurred between November 26 through the 29th 1983 bringing widespread heavy snows of 9 inches at Huron South Dakota, 11.4 inches in Sioux Falls and 13.6 inches at Sioux City Iowa. With deep snow cover of around 10 inches at all three locations at months end, the stage was set for a potentially cold December. With deep snow cover at the beginning of December and a persistent jet stream pattern that brought one cold Arctic blast after another, a month that started out cold only got colder and it wasn't until after Christmas when temperatures moderated and even then temperatures remained will below normal. An indication of just how cold it was in December 1983 was the fact that both Huron and Sioux Falls never saw the mercury climb to 30 degrees and Sioux City struggled to hit 32 degrees on December 4th.

The monthly high of 29 degrees in Huron was also set on the 4th while in Sioux Falls, the monthly high of 27 degrees was reached on the 4th, 10th, 11th and the last day of the month. The average temperature for the month of December 1983 in Sioux Falls was 2.1 degrees, 17.6 degrees below normal. This broke the previous coldest December by 5.9 degrees when the average temperature of 8.0 degrees was established in 1917. The average high for the month was 10.9 degrees and the average low was 6.7 degrees below zero.

There were 24 days when the mercury fell to zero degrees or colder, 11 days of 10 below zero or colder including 10 days in a row between the 16th and 25th and 8 days with 20 degrees below zero or colder on 8 consecutive days between the 17th and 24th. The coldest temperature, 26 degrees below zero, occurred on the 18th and 22nd. In Sioux City, the average temperature for the month of December 1983 was 6.0 degrees which was 17.3 degrees below normal. The previous record coldest December of 12.8 degrees set in 1909 was smashed by a whopping 6.8 degrees! The average high for the month was 13.4 degrees and the average low was 1.4 degrees below zero. There was a total of 17 days where the temperature fell to zero degrees or colder, 9 consecutive days of 10 below zero or colder which occurred between the 17th and 25th and one day with 20 below zero or colder which occurred on the 23rd when the mercury plunged to 21 degrees below zero.

In Huron, the average temperature for December 1983 was 2.8 degrees which was 16.2 degrees below normal. The average high was 11.1 degrees and the average low was 5.6 degrees below zero. There were 24 days of zero degrees or colder during the month, 10 consecutive days of 10 degrees below zero or colder between the 16th and 25th, and 4 consecutive days of 20 degrees below zero or colder between the 21st and 24th. The coldest temperature for the month was 28 degrees below zero which occurred on the 23rd.