The month of December was consistent with previous ones in Paris from a meteorological point of view. Once again, the capital experienced a significant deficit in sunshine compared to averages, according to readings from the official Météo France station located in Montsouris park, to the south of the city.
In total, the sun shone for 42 hours and 25 minutes. This represents a 25% drop from normal, which is almost 57 hours. Above all, this weak presence of blue sky occurs at the time of year when the days are already the shortest. This deficit comes, moreover, on the heels of a long period of little sunshine: August is the last month to have had a surplus in Paris.
In December, half of the days have a total of…zero minutes of sunshine. Two others only have four, and finally three finish with less than an hour.
Thursday 26 and Friday 27 stood out for the opposite reason. They were respectively affected by 6:22 and 7:15 hours of sunshine, or, with 1:37 p.m., a third of the sunshine for the entire month.
Concerning precipitation, December 2024 ended close to standards. With 64.4 mm, or almost 65 liters per square meter, 4% more rain fell than usual. The weekend of December 21 and 22 was copiously wet with 15.8 mm on Saturday and 8.5 mm on Sunday. That’s almost 40% of the total monthly cumulative in just two days.
Finally, regarding temperatures, they were moderately above the norm with an excess of +0.5°C over the whole month. The average maximums thus reached 8.5°C. These are the minimums which deviated furthest from the standards. With 4.6°C on average at the coolest time of the day, the thermometer showed + 0.8°C deviation from the norm. The rise in minimum temperatures, sometimes in greater proportions than maximums, is one of the markers of ongoing climate change.
