America Just Had Its Second-Warmest Winter on Record Despite Eastern Cold Snaps

It may be cold comfort for Americans in the East and Midwest who shivered through blizzards and subfreezing temperatures, but this past winter was the second-warmest on record for the continental United States, federal meteorologists calculated Monday.

The Lower 48 states averaged 37.13 degrees Fahrenheit (2.85 degrees Celsius) from December through February, which is considered meteorological winter. That’s just one-third of a degree below the warmest winter on record, set two years ago. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration winter temperature records go back 131 years, with the historical U.S. winter average sitting at 32.2°F (0.1°C).

The higher average temperature was driven primarily by the area west of the Mississippi River, which largely missed out on winter this year, said Russell Vose, NOAA’s climate monitoring chief. The West saw record or near-record warmth all winter, while the East experienced cold spells that weren’t as extreme in comparison to the West’s exceptional heat.

“The East, especially the Northeast, had winter. In the West, there were certainly places where you could say we missed the winter.”

— Russell Vose, NOAA Climate Monitoring Chief

Nine states broke or tied records for the warmest winter: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, according to NOAA. Eight of these record-warm states rank in the top 10 for land area in the Lower 48, significantly influencing national averages. By comparison, Delaware—the state with the coldest rank this winter—only recorded its 28th coldest winter on record.

The disparity between regional experiences was stark. Eight western cities set new warmest winter records: Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, Tucson, and Lubbock. Salt Lake City’s achievement was particularly remarkable—the city broke its winter temperature record by 2.3°F, a margin exceeding the entire difference between the second and tenth warmest winters in NOAA’s records. The city also recorded its least snowy winter ever, with only 2.5 inches of total snowfall.

The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab documented the largest snow loss on record, with snow depth plunging from 8 feet on February 20 to less than 4 feet by February 28—a dramatic illustration of winter’s retreat in the West.

Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters noted that while the cold in the East seemed harsh and long-lasting, it didn’t persist throughout the entire season.

“We had a pretty impressive long stretch of unbroken cold that was very notable. But the total duration for the whole winter, not so much.”

— Jeff Masters, Yale Climate Connections Meteorologist

Monthly breakdowns reveal the warming trend’s consistency: February ranked as the fourth-warmest on record nationally, with Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming each recording their warmest February. December was the fifth-warmest on record, while January ranked 24th warmest.

Over the past 50 years, winter in the Lower 48 states has warmed by 3.95 degrees Fahrenheit (2.19 degrees Celsius)—far more than any of the other three seasons, according to NOAA data. This accelerating winter warming trend has significant implications for water resources, agriculture, and ecosystems across the American West, where diminishing snowpack threatens summer water supplies.