The winter of 2023-24 will go down in history as the hottest winter in the continental United States in 130 years of record, according to NOAA.
In February, traditionally one of the coldest months of the year, record heat, in some cases more than 100 years, scorched Texas and much of the central United States. Killeen, Texas became the first city in the calendar year to reach a high temperature of 100 degrees on February 26th. According to FOX Weather calculations, 1,327 cities set new daily high temperatures for the month.
This winter was also the lowest on record for ice cover across the Great Lakes. As of February 11, only 2.7% of the Great Lakes were covered by ice. On average, 50% of the lake is covered with ice at any given time in winter.
February 2024 It was the third warmest temperature on record. The average temperature was 41.1 degrees Fahrenheit, 7.2 degrees warmer than the 20th.–average of the century.
December 2023 was the warmest day on record in 130 years, so it’s no wonder it’s a meteorological winter on record.
In many parts of the country, Christmas 2023 will be remembered as a Christmas without snow. According to the FOX Prediction Center, as of Christmas morning, only 17.6% of the snow had fallen in the United States, the lowest amount of snow for Christmas Day in 20 years. Christmas 2009 had the most snow, covering more than 63% of the United States.
blame el nino
In January, the polar vortex stalled, sending frigid temperatures as far south as the Gulf Coast, but only for a short time. The month ended 1.6°F warmer than normal, so it’s still warmer than normal, but not record-breaking.
“El Niño played a big role in the record heat,” said Cody Blood, a meteorologist with the FOX Prediction Center. “An El Niño pattern typically means a strong Pacific jet, which moves the polar jet further north. There’s obviously another side to this story, but this traps the coldest air from the Lower 48. That will almost never happen.”
Blood said Pacific jet flights have been gaining momentum over the United States in recent months in a southwest-to-northeast direction.
“This allowed abundant warm air to dominate the eastern two-thirds of the country,” he said. “Not only that, but we’ve allowed the storm to become primarily rain.”
wintry weather conditions
The winter of 2023-2024 was the warmest on record. The average temperature was 37.6 degrees, 5.4 degrees above average. Rainfall totaled 7.71 inches, 0.92 inches above normal and the third-wettest winter.
Due to the unseasonably warm weather, losses due to weather disasters will already exceed $1 billion in 2024 for the first time. Severe storms spawned tornadoes in more than a dozen states from January 8th to 10th. The hardest hit areas were the Florida Panhandle, where an EF-3 tornado destroyed much of Panama City Beach. Damaging wind gusts caused destruction along the East Coast.
El Niño is weakening, but NOAA warns it could persist into the summer. This means that temperatures may be higher than normal into August.
