We Did It AGAIN: 2024 Hottest Year On Record In Vermont

A thunderhead erupts in hot, humid weather in June
in St. Albans Bay. As measured in Burlington, 2024 was
easily the hottest year on record, breaking the
mark set just last year, in 2023.

Yes, Vermont had its hottest year on record in 2024. And it wasn't even close. 

On this date last year, I wrote a post about 2023 being the hottest year on record and could not believe we'd had four years in a row that were among Burlington's top 10 warmest.

Now in 2024, we've done it again, the fifth year in a row we scored in the top 10 list of warmest years. 

This year also knocked 1953 and 1898 out the Number 10 spot of warmest years in Burlington. That means all of the top 10 warmest years have happened since 1998, and nine of the top 10 have hit since 2010.  

That is simply bonkers for a period of record that goes back to the 1880s.  Climate change is really being felt in Vermont. 

Even more bonkers is the margin by which we broke 2023's mark for hottest year.  The average temperature in Burlington in 2024 was 50.9 degrees. That's 0.9 degrees - almost a full degree hotter than 2023.

That might not sound like that big a record breaker but a the hottest year on record by nearly a degree is insane if you consider we're averaging out 366 days (2024 was a leap year).

Since 2024 was the hottest year on record by such a large margin in Burlington, I'm going to go out on a limb and say you probably won't see a year as hot as the recently ended one for quite awhile, several years at least.

Then again, as I demonstrated a year ago, I can be proven wrong. We'll see. With climate change running on, though, it's inevitable we will have a year in Vermont even hotter than 2024. Unless you're quite elderly, you'll probably see a year or two or more toastier than the last one. 

It looks like St. Johnsbury also had its warmest year on record with a mean temperature of 49.1 degrees.   

That said, I have a feeling 2025 will break the streak and not become one of our top ten hottest years on record. Even with climate change, you need to have a cooler year eventually.  Today's mild weather notwithstanding, it looks like  January is going to be quite chilly, which would help drag down 2025's overall average temperature. 

After all, 2024 brought us no substantially cooler than normal months, and even many of the warmer years have at least one chilly month. Incredibly, eight months in 2024 in Burlington were among the top ten warmest. 

Burlington wasn't alone in seeing 2024 as the hottest. We'll soon have stats that show many cities in the United States just had their warmest year on record.  The United States  will probably see its hottest year on record as 2024. Plus, the world as a whole will see 2024 as its hottest year, though we won't have final numbers on that for a couple weeks .

Back here in Vermont, precipitation in 2024 was highly variable. Both in when it rained and snowed and where it rained. The summer was very wet, the autumn very dry. 

At Burlington, rainfall for the year was unremarkable. Total rainfall for the year there was 38.35 inches, which is just 0.82 inches above average

St. Johnsbury set a new record for rainiest year with 55.59 inches. That included an incredible 17.15 inches that fell just in the month of July.   Southern Vermont saw slightly below normal rainfall for the year. 

It was certainly an eventful year in Vermont, as we had several devastating floods, along with damaging wind storms, winter storms and oppressive heat. With climate change, extreme weather is becoming the norm in Vermont and many other places.

Expect plenty more weather weirdness in 2025. 

DECEMBER

December in Vermont broke the trend of warm months in 2024.  Most places saw temperatures near or just slightly below what is regarded as normal.  Remember, this is the "new normal," which is the average of temperatures between 1990 and 2020.

 Due to climate change those years were warmer than the 20th century average.  Had December, 2024's weather hit a half century ago, it would have been regarded as a little on the warm side. 

The biggest news of the month was when Burlington's temperature fell to minus 3 on December 22. That ended a record long 663 consecutive days above zero. 

A record or near record warm spell in the closing days of the month offset generally chillier than average conditions on several days either side of the Christmas holiday. 

Precipitation across Vermont was a little above average, which was good news after a remarkably dry autumn. Most of the precipitation fell on and around December 11, when 1.5 to as much as three inches of rain drenched the state.

Such a storm would have normally created some flooding, but it was so dry prior to the storm that there was little trouble with rainfall.