DESTIN, Fla. (WKRG) — Weather data tracking back to 1996 in the Destin area lists Dec. 27, 2008, as the hottest December day in the history of the region at 85 degrees.
Second on that list is Dec. 2, 2021, at 82 degrees. A day that WKRG News 5 First Alert Storm Team Meteorologists say we will tie or possibly break this year along the Gulf Coast.
“So our high projected high today (Wednesday, Dec. 7) is 82 degrees in Mobile. That fog did clear out as we expected it to this morning and that was the only thing that was iffy about temperatures today,” said Meteorologist Caroline Carithers. “So I think we’ll hit 82 today and the record for the daily high record is 81, so I think we’ll break that record.”
For Destin, Carithers said the high could get up to 78 degrees, a few short of the record.
“Typically this time of year we’re waking up with temperatures in the mid-40s. This morning we woke up in the mid-60s, so about 15 to 20 degrees above where we should be this time of year. Normal highs and lows in Mobile and Pensacola are the mid to upper 60s sometimes and we’re looking at low to mid-80s today. So again almost 20 degrees above average,” said Carithers.
Data graphs provided by the National Weather Service Mobile show the month of December highs and average lows. Carithers explained how cold fronts and drops in temperatures work.
“So it is way warmer than it should be this time of year, and part of the reason is that temperatures and rain chances this time of year are mostly dictated by systems and cold fronts that move through. Typically we get one almost weekly and we get that chance for severe weather with it. We get a line of storms that moves through and then we cool down,” said Carithers. “But this week we just haven’t had one of those, and we’re not tracking one until sometime next week. So we’re just getting kind of stuck in between systems here, so there’s nothing really to cool us down, so we’ve been stuck with a southerly wind, bringing in that moisture, which leads to fog in the morning and warm temperatures.”