December in Slovenia warmest in 70 years
Sun above the Pokljuka Plateau. Photo: AljoĊĦa Rehar/STA
December 2023 has been the warmest since at least 1950, preliminary data from the Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO) show. It was sunnier but also wetter than usual but the high temperatures meant only a few centimetres of snow fell, and it melted within days.
Air temperature in December last year was 2.9 degrees Celsius above the national average in the period between 1991 and 2020.
The coldest December was recorded in 1963 and 1969, when air temperature was 4.4 degrees below the average.
December average air temperature dropped from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, and then did not change much until the mid-1990s, when it started increasing rapidly.
Since the mid-1990s, December has warmed up by an average 2.5 degrees.
In this millennium, the average air temperature in December was above average 17 times and six times below average.
Last year December was the seventh consecutive with above-average temperatures.
Rainfall that month was also above average compared to the 1991-2020 period; its rainfall indicator was 147%, making it one of the 16 wettest since 1950.
The wettest December was recorded in 1959 with a rainfall indicator of 241%, while the same month in 2015 and 2016 had the rainfall indicators of around 1%, making it practically dry.
Last December was also above the national average in terms of sunshine (indicator 124%), which makes it one of the 12 sunniest since 1961. The sunniest was recorded in 2016 and the dullest in 1995.
