...1786... The first of two great early December storms began. The storm produced 18 inches of snow at Morristown NJ, and twenty inches of snow at New Haven CT. It also resulted in high tides at Nantucket which did great damage.
...1900... The wind gust peaked at 58 miles per hour at Newport, Rhode Island, setting the record high for the date.
...1964... A severe ice storms was in progress across Massachusetts and eastern New York. Ice accretions reached 1.5 inches in some places and well over 80,000 homes lost power. Some homes did not have power for 5 days.
...1972... Winds gusting to 70 mph sent the temperature at Livingston MT plunging from 52 degrees to 18 degrees in just twenty minutes.
...1982... The temperature in New York City's Central Park reached 72 degrees to establish a record high for December. The month as a whole was also the warmest of record.
...1987... A cold front crossing the Pacific Coast Region brought high winds and heavy rain to California. Thunderstorm winds gusted to 55 mph at Newport Beach CA, and Mount Wilson CA was drenched with 2.17 inches of rain in six hours. Gale force winds prevailed along the Northern Pacific Coast, and winds in the Tehachapis Mountains of southern California gusted to 60 mph.
...1988... Gale force winds continued to usher cold arctic air into the northeastern U.S. Winds gusted to 65 mph at Windsor Locks CT. Up to a foot of snow blanketed the higher elevations of Vermont.
...1989... Seventeen cities in the eastern U.S., including nine in Florida, reported record low temperatures for the date. Lakeland FL reported a record low of 31 degrees, and Watertown NY was the cold spot in the nation with a low of 20 degrees below zero.
...1992... The western and southwestern U.S. were in the middle of a major four day winter storm. Flagstaff, Arizona was buried under 23 inches of snow and 22 inches piled up at Sandia Peak, New Mexico. Two F1 tornadoes touched down (on Dec 2nd) near Santa Rosa, California and Mount Lemmon, Arizona was drenched with 2.95 inches of rain in 24 hours.
...1998... Newport, Rhode Island recorded a high temperature of 68 degrees, breaking the record of 64 degrees set back in 1982 and setting the all-time record high for December
...2002... An early season winter storm brought an expansive shield of snow and ice through much of the eastern U.S., from the lower Ohio Valley, southern Appalachians and into the Northeast. Snow accumulations of 4-8 inches were common along the northern edge of the precipitation shield, while a significant accrual of glaze occurred in the Carolinas. The storm caused at least 17 fatalities, mostly from traffic accidents (CNN). In the Carolinas, electric utilities provider Duke Power characterized the ice storm as the worst in the company's history, with 1.2 million customers or nearly half its entire customer base without power on the morning of the 5th. This surpassed electrical outages inflicted by Hurricane Hugo as it swept through the central Carolinas in September 1989.