December Weather at Ellington Field United StatesDaily high temperatures decrease by 5°F, from 68°F to 63°F, rarely falling below 49°F or exceeding 79°F. Daily low temperatures decrease by 5°F, from 52°F to 47°F, rarely falling below 35°F or exceeding 65°F. For reference, on August 4, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Ellington Field typically range from 77°F to 93°F, while on January 6, the coldest day of the year, they range from 47°F to 63°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on December. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. Zhangzhou, China (8,119 miles away) is the far-away foreign place with temperatures most similar to Ellington Field (view comparison). CloudsThe month of December at Ellington Field experiences gradually increasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy increasing from 39% to 47%. The clearest day of the month is December 1, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 61% of the time. For reference, on August 19, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 51%, while on October 25, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 69%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Ellington Field, the chance of a wet day over the course of December is essentially constant, remaining around 26% throughout. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 40% on August 27, and its lowest chance is 21% on April 14. RainfallTo show variation within the month and not just the monthly total, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during December at Ellington Field is essentially constant, remaining about 3.6 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 6.9 inches or falling below 1.1 inches. SunOver the course of December at Ellington Field, the length of the day is essentially constant. The shortest day of the month is December 21, with 10 hours, 15 minutes of daylight and the longest day is December 1, with 10 hours, 23 minutes of daylight. The earliest sunrise of the month at Ellington Field is 6:58 AM on December 1 and the latest sunrise is 17 minutes later at 7:15 AM on December 31. The earliest sunset is 5:21 PM on December 1 and the latest sunset is 11 minutes later at 5:32 PM on December 31. Daylight saving time is observed at Ellington Field during 2024, but it neither starts nor ends during December, so the entire month is in daylight saving time. For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 6:20 AM and sets 14 hours, 3 minutes later, at 8:23 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 7:11 AM and sets 10 hours, 15 minutes later, at 5:26 PM. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for December 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.
HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy at Ellington Field is decreasing during December, falling from 18% to 10% over the course of the month. For reference, on July 20, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 99% of the time, while on January 29, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 7% of the time. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed at Ellington Field is essentially constant during December, remaining within 0.1 miles per hour of 9.9 miles per hour throughout. For reference, on April 2, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 10.4 miles per hour, while on August 14, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.0 miles per hour. The highest daily average wind speed during December is 10.0 miles per hour on December 25. The wind direction at Ellington Field during December is predominantly out of the south from December 1 to December 2 and the north from December 2 to December 31. Water TemperatureEllington Field is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water. The average surface water temperature at Ellington Field is decreasing during December, falling by 5°F, from 66°F to 61°F, over the course of the month. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season at Ellington Field typically lasts for 12 months (354 days), from around January 20 to around January 8, rarely starting after February 28, or ending before December 6. The month of December at Ellington Field is more likely than not fully outside of the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season rapidly decreasing from 94% to 56% over the course of the month. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days at Ellington Field are increasing during December, increasing by 259°F, from 7,157°F to 7,416°F, over the course of the month. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Ellington Field is essentially constant during December, remaining within 0.1 kWh of 3.1 kWh throughout. The lowest average daily incident shortwave solar energy during December is 3.0 kWh on December 23. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Ellington Field are 29.607 deg latitude, -95.159 deg longitude, and 30 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Ellington Field is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 39 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 28 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (112 feet). Within 50 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (246 feet). The area within 2 miles of Ellington Field is covered by artificial surfaces (65%) and cropland (31%), within 10 miles by artificial surfaces (77%) and cropland (12%), and within 50 miles by cropland (32%) and water (22%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Ellington Field, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Temperature and Dew PointEllington Field has a weather station that reported reliably enough during the analysis period that we have included it in our network. When available, historical temperature and dew point measurements are taken directly from this weather station. These records are obtained from NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly data set, falling back on ICAO METAR records as required. In the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on records from nearby stations, adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal intra-station differences. For a given day of the year and hour of the day, the fallback station is selected to minimize the prediction error over the years for which there are measurements for both stations. The stations on which we may fall back include but are not limited to William P Hobby Airport; Pearland Regional Airport; Houston Dunn Helistop; Houston Southwest Airport; George Bush Intercontinental Airport; Scholes Field; Houston, Sugar Land Municipal / Hull Field Airport; and Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport. Other DataAll data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors. DisclaimerThe information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader. Please review our full terms contained on our Terms of Service page. |