The strong El Niño event that developed this year also contributed to the warm weather extremes. And during this abnormally mild December, there have been only 53 cold weather records compared to a whopping 2,826 warm ones. Heat records outpaced cold ones during the spring, but by a factor of less than 2. The fall lull in extensive record heat was somewhat similar to what was observed in spring. December has proven to be exceptionally warm, with about 53 warm records for every cold one.

Source: Washington Post December 30, 2023 13:14 UTC