Thanksgiving can be a relatively volatile holiday. Sitting on the edge of fall and winter, it can be warm and sunny one year, and then freezing cold with snow falling the next. Here we look back at the averages and the greatest extremes the holiday has ever seen.

Normals *1981-2010
High: 48
Low: 33
Mean: 40.5
Precipitation: 0.11″
Snowfall: 0.1″

Thanksgiving Temperature Records

Top 10 Coldest Highs
1. 1930: 12
2. 1936: 26
3. 1880, 1903, 1905: 27
4. 1938: 28
5. 1892, 1898: 29
6. 1881: 30
7. 1945, 2002, 2013: 32
8. 1886, 1889, 1890, 1929, 1958: 33
9. 1882, 1885, 1901, 2014: 34
10. 1912, 1947, 1956, 1982, 2000: 35

Top 10 Coldest Lows
1. 1930: 3
2.1930, 2005: 15
3. 1929, 1984: 16
4. 2000: 17
5. 1880, 1881, 1892, 1894, 1958: 18
6. 1901, 1905, 2002: 19
7. 1898, 1936, 1938, 1950, 1982, 1989, 1996: 20
8. 1911, 1956, 2013: 21
9. 1882, 1886, 1912, 1945: 22
10. 1994, 2008: 23

Top 10 Warmest Highs
1. 1896: 70
2. 2015: 65
3. 1915, 1940: 64
4. 1879, 1908, 1981, 2007, 2012: 63
5. 1966, 1968, 1973, 1979: 62
6. 1918, 1941: 61
7. 1914, 1927, 1983: 60
8. 1933: 59
9. 1899, 1957: 58
10. 1921, 1943, 1990, 2010: 57

Top 10 Warmest Lows
1. 1979: 53
2. 1896: 52
3. 1940: 51
4. 1957: 49
5. 1879: 48
6. 1934, 1966, 2015: 47
7. 1968: 46
8. 1913, 1933, 1978, 1990, 2003: 43
9. 1899, 1927, 1961: 42
10. 1908, 1951, 1987, 1991, 1998: 41

Top 10 Wettest
1. 2010: 1.76″
2. 1961: 1.58″
3. 1968: 1.22″
4. 1990: 0.71″
5. 1921, 1925: 0.70″
6. 1926: 0.69″
7. 1980: 0.65″
8. 1887: 0.60″
9. 1957: 0.59″
10. 1951: 0.49″

Top 10 Snowiest
1. 1880: 3.2″
2. 1950: 1.1″
3. 1938: 0.8″
4. 1959: 0.7″
5. 1889: 0.4″
6. 1945, 1957: 0.3″
7. 1890, 1954, 2005: 0.2″
8. 1953, 2004: 0.1″
9. Multiple: Trace
10. Multiple: 0

Most Snow on the Ground
1959: 1″
2013: 1″
Trace: Multiple

Climatology for all months of the year is located on the Weather History

Wilmington National Weather Service