December Weather at Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. Canada

Daily high temperatures decrease by 8°F, from -6°F to -15°F, rarely falling below -28°F or exceeding 9°F.

Daily low temperatures decrease by 8°F, from -20°F to -28°F, rarely falling below -41°F or exceeding -4°F.

For reference, on July 19, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. typically range from 42°F to 55°F, while on February 5, the coldest day of the year, they range from -32°F to -20°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.

Novyy Urengoy, Russia (3,107 miles away); Chernyshevskiy, Russia (3,243 miles); and Kropotkin, Russia (3,526 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. (view comparison).

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The month of December at Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 96% throughout the month.

The clearest day of the month is December 9, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 5% of the time.

For reference, on January 13, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 97%, while on June 18, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 38%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Shepherd Bay, N. W. T., the chance of a wet day over the course of December is essentially constant, remaining around 3% throughout.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 21% on July 30, and its lowest chance is 1% on February 10.

Snowfall

As with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day snowfall during December at Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. is gradually decreasing, starting the month at 1.4 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.6 inches or falls below -0.0 inches, and ending the month at 1.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.3 inches or falls below -0.0 inches.

Due to its extreme latitude, Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. experiences polar day (also known as the midnight Sun) during the summer and polar night during the winter. These are periods of time in which the sun is continuously above or below the horizon for more than one day. The precise start and end dates of polar day and night vary from year to year and depend on the precise location and elevation of the observer, and the local topography.

In the winter at Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. during 2024, the Sun is continuously below the horizon for 1.3 months, setting at 11:18 AM on December 1, and not rising again until 11:05 AM on January 10. As such, polar night begins in December on and lasts beyond the end of the month.

The longest day of the month is December 1, with 31 minutes of daylight.

Daylight saving time is observed at Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. during 2024, but it neither starts nor ends during December, so the entire month is in daylight saving time.

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.

The 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.

We 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 Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. is essentially constant during December, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on July 22, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.

This 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 Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. is essentially constant during December, remaining within 0.2 miles per hour of 10.8 miles per hour throughout.

For reference, on April 18, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 11.3 miles per hour, while on July 11, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 9.5 miles per hour.

The lowest daily average wind speed during December is 10.7 miles per hour on December 14.

The wind direction at Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. during December is predominantly out of the west from December 1 to December 6 and the north from December 6 to December 31.

Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. 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 Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. is essentially constant during December, remaining around 29°F throughout.

Definitions 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 Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. typically lasts for 1.9 months (58 days), from around June 27 to around August 24, rarely starting before June 10 or after July 22, and rarely ending before August 3 or after September 9.

The month of December at Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. is reliably fully outside of the growing season.

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 Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. are essentially constant during December, remaining around 117°F throughout.

This 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 Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. is essentially constant during December, remaining around 0.0 kWh throughout.

The lowest average daily incident shortwave solar energy during December is 0.0 kWh on December 21.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. are 68.817 deg latitude, -93.433 deg longitude, and 112 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 79 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 112 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (230 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (1,312 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Shepherd Bay, N. W. T. is covered by sparse vegetation (56%), bare soil (32%), and grassland (12%), within 10 miles by sparse vegetation (47%) and water (21%), and within 50 miles by sparse vegetation (37%) and water (35%).