Environment Canada says this December didn't just feel warm, with the numbers backing that up.

The current El Nino pattern has increased the warmth across the prairies, with areas seeing positive temperatures well into December.

That resulted in a relatively high average, explains Meteorologist Terri Lang.

"It looks like by the end of December, the average temperature was -4.8 and that comes in second overall for warmest behind 1997, which was another strong El Nino year. That average temperature in December of 1997 was -4.5."

That's the second-warmest out of 102 recorded years.

Precipitation was much more average, coming in a bit above the usual average.

"With respect to precipitation. 18.7mm was recorded at Estevan and that actually was above the average of 17.1 millimeters with 10.7 of that falling on (December) 7th."

That was also above what other locations around Saskatchewan saw, with some places not even getting snow.

"In terms of moisture, Estevan made out better than most places in Saskatchewan because some places didn't record any precipitation. So it's middle of the pack, whether wettest or driest, for those stats." 

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