It’s Christmas season in the Tennessee Valley! We have made it to December, and we are getting closer to wrapping up 2025. Meteorologically, that means we have entered not only a new month, but a new climatological season as well.
For the month of December, we usually average a daytime high of about 55 degrees. That ranges from 57 at the beginning of the month to 52 by the end. We average a low of 36.1 degrees, with December 1st averaging at 38 and us coming in around 33 for an average as we wrap up December. We can still be as warm as the 70s though. The December monthly record high for the Muscle Shoals climate reporting site was 78, set back in 2016. Similarly, we can be downright cold sometimes too. The record low there was -5, set back in 1989!
December is usually one of our wettest months of the year as the storm track gets settled closer to us. We normally average just shy of 5 and a half inches of precipitation. We are now getting into the time of year where that can occasionally come in the form of significant snow or ice accumulations. For example, the monthly record snowfall for the Muscle Shoals reporting site is 11.1″, set in 1963.
With the storm track shifting closer to us and becoming more active, that means severe storms and tornadoes are sometimes a significant concern. Our local area’s tornado season runs from November through the end of May, and we are no stranger at all to tornadoes in December! Our region overall has a long history of strong (EF2/F2 and greater) and sometimes long-track type tornadoes in the month of December. While they don’t happen quite as frequently as during March and April, they can sometimes be just as intense and impactful!
