Yesterday (Christmas Day 2019) was unusually warm in the Ozarks. I think the high here in the Joplin area was 70 degrees, give or take a degree or so. It felt more like mid-autumn than winter. I happened to be perusing some old Springfield newspapers yesterday and saw a story in a December 26, 1907, issue talking about how warm it had been the day before. So, I guess warm weather on Christmas Day is not a recent or a particularly rare phenomenon, although I should add that the temperatures we experienced yesterday were warmer than those Springfield and the Ozarks saw in 1907.
The headline in the Springfield Republican the day after Christmas in 1907 proclaimed, "LIKE A SPRING DAY: Weather That Prevailed Here on Christmas Day Would Be Hard to Beat." The story went on to say, "Reports were heard on every hand yesterday about what a fine day it was and what a warm Christmas the people of the Ozarks were enjoying." Some people compared the pleasant weather to balmy spring days, while others "went them one better" and said that the weather the previous day reminded them of "the good old summer time."
Men strolled upon the streets of Springfield without overcoats, and women went about "without their furs and great coats....All day the sun poured forth his warm rays in the Ozarks, and the thermometer, at his bidding, went tearing up around the sixty mark." Even at five o''clock, as the sun was starting to set, the temperature continued to hover around the fifty degree mark.
So, not quite as warm as we experienced yesterday, but still a nice, pleasant Christmas Day in 1907.
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