NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – December 2021 was one for the record books. It was the second-warmest December on record for Middle Tennessee. In Nashville, the average temperature for the entire month was 53.4 degrees. The average high temperature was 64.2 degrees and the average low temperature was 42.5 degrees.

It certainly wasn’t a White Christmas. The warmest temperature for December 2021 was on Christmas Day, with a record-tying 76°.

The unusually warm and humid conditions also brought severe storms to Middle Tennessee. Krissy Hurley, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Nashville said, “When we are that warm for the entire month, and we’re sitting at 70 degrees and it feels almost like March or April, we’re probably going to end up paying for it. And boy have we in 2021. Because we’ve had the most tornadoes we’ve ever recorded in the month of December.”

There were five tornadoes reported during the early morning of December 6. A much more destructive outbreak occurred on the night of December 10-11, including an EF-3 and two EF-2’s. This is one of the largest tornado outbreaks ever in Middle Tennessee.

To put Middle TN’s record-high 21 tornadoes for the month of December into perspective, from the 1800s to 2020, the region only had a combined 17 recorded tornadoes in December. Middle Tennessee ended 2021 with a record-high 45 tornadoes over the course of the year.

While December was unusually warm, January has already had some cold days. We started out with a stormy New Year’s Day followed by snow January 2-3. More winter weather is on the way for Thursday!