After a relatively mild end to November, the first part of December began sharply colder across the area.  Many record low temperatures were set across our region, with all five of our official climate locations setting at least one record. 

The weather influences responsible for these record-setting cold temperatures included two strong arctic cold fronts, very dry air masses, and radiational cooling.  Building high pressure behind these cold fronts spilled arctic air masses southward into our region.  These arctic air masses contained unusually dry air, with dewpoints only in the single digits and teens.  A few nights of clear skies and calm winds combined with this cold, dry arctic air mass to set up ideal radiational cooling conditions.