During the planet’s hottest year, many U.S. cities also experienced their warmest weather on record in 2023. They spanned from Texas to the Northeast and included Austin, Baltimore, Houston, Miami, New Orleans, New York and Tampa.
In the Northeast, the lack of cold was a key factor in the lowest annual snow totals for several major cities.
Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist in Alaska, said it’s a “near certainty” that 2023 will rank among the five warmest years on record for the Lower 48 states. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will publish official ranking in one to two weeks.
Where it was record-warm
At least 148 locations in the Lower 48 with a long period of weather observations posted their warmest year on record. By comparison, only three locations registered a record-cold year, according to data compiled by the Southeast Regional Climate Center. A selection of the record-warm locations is listed in the table below:
Cities in Florida and Texas led the way in representation with a combined 17 major cities observing record-warm years. Daytona Beach, Fort Myers, Key West and Miami were among the record setters in the Sunshine State. In Texas, Houston, El Paso, Lubbock, San Antonio and others made the list.
The warmth spread along the Gulf Coast, with several cities in Louisiana and Mississippi posting record-warm years.
In the Northeast, New York City, Binghamton, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt., were among cities that notched their warmest year, boosted by an abnormally mild December.
December’s grand finale
The warmth during December punctuated the toasty year in an emphatic way. Las Vegas; Seattle; Fargo, N.D.; Minneapolis; Green Bay, Wis.; and Toledo were among cities that had a record-warm month.
The entirety of Minnesota finished with temperatures that averaged at least 10 degrees above normal, as did large portions of Montana, the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Iowa.
During the month, snow cover extent in North America set record lows for the time of year, while many locations across the nation’s northern tier that are accustomed to a white Christmas awakened to bare ground on Dec. 25.
It was the warmest December for the Lower 48 “by a wide margin,” Brettschneider wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Known as the Icebox of the Nation, International Falls, Minn., had a December average of 27.6 degrees, 15.8 degrees above its average of 11.8 degrees and nearly six degrees above its previous monthly record.
Missing: Snow and ice
Across the Mid-Atlantic and coastal Northeast, the warmth that started and ended the year contributed to historically low annual snowfall.
Coming off the nearly snowless winter of 2022-23, there was also little or no snow to start the winter of 2023-2024. The result was record or near-record low 2023 snowfall amounts from Virginia to southern New England.
Here are the 2023 snowfall numbers and how they ranked:
- Washington: 0.5 inches, tied for second lowest on record
- Baltimore: 0.2 inches, lowest on record (previous record 2.4 inches in 1913)
- Philadelphia: 0.3 inches, lowest on record (previous record 2.1 inches in 1913)
- New York City: 2.3 inches, lowest on record (previous record 3.4 inches in 1913)
- Boston: 11.6 inches, fourth lowest on record
Cities from Washington to New York are still looking to snap their record or near-record stretches without at least 1 inch of snow; some of them have surpassed 700 calendar days.
Harrisburg, Pa., has gone more than 340 days without measurable snow, which is a record.
It’s not only snow that’s lacking. The Great Lakes finished the year with only 0.2 percent ice cover, compared with an average of 9 percent, according to the Great Lakes Ice Tracker.
Great Lakes ice update for December 31, 2023: Combined 0.2% | Lake Superior 0.5% | Lake Michigan 0% | Lake Huron 0% | Lake Erie 0% | Lake Ontario 0% | #GreatLakes pic.twitter.com/HiiN2Hf06j
— Great Lakes Ice Tracker (@glicetracker) December 31, 2023
Why was the year so warm?
The warmth can largely be attributed to both the strong El Niño climate pattern and human-caused climate change, which — together — injected large amounts of heat into the atmosphere.
During the summer, stagnant and intense zones of high pressure helped cook the Gulf of Mexico and, by extension, heated up Texas, Florida and other states along the Gulf Coast. Other persistent high-pressure zones in the northern United States and Canada boosted temperatures throughout the year while fueling Canada’s historic summer fire season.