Vermont Wasn't Alone: More Than 350 U.S. Weather Stations Had Hottest Year In 2024

A small thunderstorm pops up over Lake Champlain near
South Hero, Vermont on a hot, steamy July, 2024 day. 
Nearby Burlington ended up having their hottest year
on record, as did more than 300 U.S. cities last year. 

When I said the other day that a couple cities in Vermont had their warmest year on record in 2024, we weren't exactly unique.  

Turns out Burlington, Vermont was among at least 299 United States sites that had their warmest year on record in the Lower 48.  Another 60 sites tied their records for warmest year.

Data are trickling in from other cities so this number might grow. 

This is more evidence hat we are living in a very different climatological world than we did just a few decades ago. If the climate were normal, most places would not have a record warm or cold year. But a roughly equal number of cities would have had a record warm or a record cold year. 

Not in 2024, that's for sure! 

Only three states - Delaware, Rhode Island and South Carolina - didn't have any cities reporting record breaking or record tying heat. 

That means the 2024 heat was widespread across the nation. Virtually everyone enjoyed or endured - depending on your perspective - a hot 2024, But it does seem it was most widespread from the Southwest, through Texas and parts of the Deep South. And also the interior Northeast and parts of the Great Lakes. 

In Vermont, the data set compiled by the Southeast Regional Climate Center says Burlington, St. Johnsbury, Montpelier and Woodstock had their hottest year on record in 2024.  Bennington tied the record for hottest year. 

Nearby cities that had their hottest year in 2024 include Albany in New York and Concord, Berlin and North Conway, New Hampshire.    

There were a couple spots that were coolish, at least by comparison. 

The heat was well distributed throughout the year. It wasn't just one standout month that skewed 2024 toward warmth. 

Some cities had more than 40 record highs distributed through the year, which is a lot. Pascagoula, Mississippi endured 56 days with record highs in 2024. San Antonio and Tampa had 56 such days. 

Phoenix, Arizona famously suffered through 21 consecutive days of record highs late September and October.  No American city had ever had that many consecutive record highs. 

Here in Vermont, Burlington managed just 11 record highs, but that's a lot for a single year when the records go back to the 1880s. There were no record lows in Burlington in 2024.

The heat in Vermont has lasted years. Each of the past five years are among Burlington's top 10 warmest. 

Since 2000, Burlington has had 46 record highs, and just one record low.

Nighttimes during 2024 in the United States were also particularly oppressive, especially near the overheated Gulf of Mexico. Brownsville, Texas and Key West, Florida each had more than 40 nights the were record warmer.  

Analysts could not find any cities that came anywhere close to their top 10 list of coolest years. The closest to that was probably Los Angeles, as measure at the airport. Winter storms early in 2024 kept the city cool. The airport is also close to the coast, so summer and autumn breezes off the Pacific Ocean kept inland heat waves at bay.

So Los Angeles was tied for their 26th coolest year out of the past 80 years. Not a big deal. 

Final figures aren't quite in yet, but either 2012 or 2024 will turn out to be the hottest year on record in the United States.  The bets are 2024 will be the hottest, we'll find out within days with NOAA releases their monthly report. 

Climatologists are also already sure that last year was the world hottest on record, breaking the mark set just a year earlier.