Meteorological winter ended on February 29. The conclusion is clear: the winter of 2015-2016 is the hottest observed in France since the first weather records.
Warmth was omnipresent throughout this winter, particularly in December (+3.7 degrees), an extremely warm and abnormal month, the hottest since the very first weather records in France in the mid-17th century.
In the end, with a national average temperature of 7.9 degrees, calculated from 170 metropolitan stations, the winter of 2015-2016 exceeds the normal by 2.3 degrees.
It breaks the 7.7-degree average of the winter of 1989/1990, whose extreme warmth was mainly due to a historically warm February, significantly milder than February 2016.
Consulting the oldest Parisian records, dating from 1658, one finds no trace of such a mild winter. It is likely necessary to go back to the Medieval Warm Period, from about the year 800 to 1300, to find a winter as mild or milder than this year.
Can this extremely warm winter be linked to climate change? Yes, it is a fact. The increase in mild winters over the past 30 years fits perfectly into the context of climate change, which affects all seasons. However, be cautious about the “drop” that may follow. The current warming will not prevent, in the more or less near future, a return to very cold climatic conditions in France and Europe during upcoming winters.
February was very rainy. France received an average of 95 mm of precipitation for the month, a surplus of 73%.
Since 1946, there have been five Februarys wetter than this year: 1957, 1970, 1972, 1977, and 2014, with the record belonging to February 1957 and its 114 mm of precipitation.
Overall, despite a record dry December, the winter is wetter than normal, as January and February caught up with and surpassed the shortfall from the last month of 2015. Indeed, France received 218 mm of precipitation (rain and snow) over the winter, compared to a normal of 199 mm, a small surplus of 10%.
The sun shone for an average of 269 hours over our country during these three winter months, with 110 in December, then 70 hours in January, and 89 hours in February. This quarterly total is very close to the normal of 1981-2010, set at 274 hours.
