NOAA rankings · updated August 2026
Hottest States in the U.S.
All 50 states ranked by NOAA 1991–2020 mean annual temperature, statewide averages across every reporting city we track.
- #1 · Florida
- 72.6°F#1 · Florida: 72.6°F. Benchmark context: complete 50-state annual-temperature ranking.
- Leader benchmark
- Top-12 cutoff
- 59.8°FTop-12 cutoff: 59.8°F. Benchmark context: complete 50-state annual-temperature ranking.
- Cutoff benchmark
- 50-state median
- 52.3°F50-state median: 52.3°F. Benchmark context: complete 50-state annual-temperature ranking.
- Cohort median
- states ranked
- 50States ranked: 50. Benchmark context: complete 50-state annual-temperature ranking.
- Cohort coverage
The hottest U.S. states, the verdict
Florida is the hottest U.S. state at 72.6°F. The top-12 cutoff is 59.8°F (#12), and the hottest-to-coldest spread across all 50 states is 39.1°F (median 52.3°F).
- 72.6°F
- hottest state average - Florida
- 59.8°F
- top-12 list threshold
- 39.1°F
- hottest-to-coldest spread
- 1991–2020
- NOAA 30-year normals window
Statewide averages smooth out local variation, a state's hottest city can run far hotter than its own average.
The bar to make the top-12 hottest states
Where the #12 statewide mean sits among all 50 state averages
60°F List threshold 59.8°F is the coolest statewide mean that still makes the top 12 (50 states)
- 30°F–35°F: 1 U.S. states (2%). Below this entry.
- 35°F–40°F: 0 U.S. states (0%). Below this entry.
- 40°F–45°F: 8 U.S. states (16%). Below this entry.
- 45°F–50°F: 10 U.S. states (20%). Below this entry.
- 50°F–55°F: 12 U.S. states (24%). Below this entry.
- 55°F–60°F: 8 U.S. states (16%). This entry sits in this band.
- 60°F–65°F: 7 U.S. states (14%). Above this entry.
- 65°F–70°F: 2 U.S. states (4%). Above this entry.
- 70°F–75°F: 2 U.S. states (4%). Above this entry.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 · 1991–2020
All 50 states, hottest to coldest
| # | State | Avg Temp | Avg Precip | Cities Tracked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida (FL) | 72.6°F (22.6°C) | 55.2" | 165 |
| 2 | Hawaii (HI) | 72.4°F (22.4°C) | 48.5" | 49 |
| 3 | Louisiana (LA) | 67.3°F (19.6°C) | 60.3" | 91 |
| 4 | Texas (TX) | 66.2°F (19.0°C) | 31.1" | 449 |
| 5 | Mississippi (MS) | 64.1°F (17.8°C) | 59.7" | 91 |
| 6 | Georgia (GA) | 63.4°F (17.4°C) | 52.0" | 122 |
| 7 | Alabama (AL) | 63.3°F (17.4°C) | 57.9" | 100 |
| 8 | South Carolina (SC) | 62.8°F (17.1°C) | 49.8" | 100 |
| 9 | Arizona (AZ) | 62.3°F (16.8°C) | 12.4" | 169 |
| 10 | Arkansas (AR) | 60.7°F (15.9°C) | 52.2" | 110 |
| 11 | Oklahoma (OK) | 60.3°F (15.7°C) | 35.7" | 159 |
| 12 | California (CA) | 59.8°F (15.4°C) | 21.6" | 363 |
| 13 | North Carolina (NC) | 59.1°F (15.1°C) | 52.2" | 178 |
| 14 | Tennessee (TN) | 58.0°F (14.4°C) | 56.0" | 146 |
| 15 | Delaware (DE) | 56.2°F (13.4°C) | 46.8" | 7 |
| 16 | Kentucky (KY) | 56.2°F (13.4°C) | 50.6" | 95 |
| 17 | Virginia (VA) | 55.8°F (13.2°C) | 46.0" | 119 |
| 18 | Maryland (MD) | 55.6°F (13.1°C) | 45.5" | 42 |
| 19 | Missouri (MO) | 55.1°F (12.8°C) | 43.9" | 164 |
| 20 | Kansas (KS) | 54.8°F (12.7°C) | 31.2" | 168 |
| 21 | New Mexico (NM) | 54.3°F (12.4°C) | 13.8" | 167 |
| 22 | New Jersey (NJ) | 53.6°F (12.0°C) | 47.9" | 45 |
| 23 | Indiana (IN) | 52.4°F (11.3°C) | 43.7" | 116 |
| 24 | Nevada (NV) | 52.4°F (11.3°C) | 8.9" | 115 |
| 25 | West Virginia (WV) | 52.3°F (11.3°C) | 47.6" | 99 |
| 26 | Illinois (IL) | 52.2°F (11.2°C) | 40.7" | 163 |
| 27 | Ohio (OH) | 51.6°F (10.9°C) | 41.1" | 128 |
| 28 | Rhode Island (RI) | 51.2°F (10.7°C) | 48.7" | 9 |
| 29 | Oregon (OR) | 50.5°F (10.3°C) | 37.6" | 180 |
| 30 | Pennsylvania (PA) | 50.2°F (10.1°C) | 45.2" | 157 |
| 31 | Connecticut (CT) | 50.1°F (10.1°C) | 48.6" | 23 |
| 32 | Washington (WA) | 49.9°F (9.9°C) | 40.9" | 149 |
| 33 | Nebraska (NE) | 49.6°F (9.8°C) | 25.0" | 171 |
| 34 | Utah (UT) | 49.4°F (9.7°C) | 13.9" | 170 |
| 35 | Massachusetts (MA) | 49.2°F (9.6°C) | 48.2" | 68 |
| 36 | Iowa (IA) | 48.0°F (8.9°C) | 35.9" | 143 |
| 37 | New York (NY) | 47.5°F (8.6°C) | 43.7" | 173 |
| 38 | Colorado (CO) | 46.3°F (7.9°C) | 15.9" | 214 |
| 39 | Idaho (ID) | 46.1°F (7.8°C) | 18.0" | 139 |
| 40 | South Dakota (SD) | 45.6°F (7.6°C) | 21.8" | 149 |
| 41 | Michigan (MI) | 45.5°F (7.5°C) | 34.2" | 201 |
| 42 | New Hampshire (NH) | 44.5°F (6.9°C) | 46.6" | 52 |
| 43 | Wisconsin (WI) | 44.5°F (6.9°C) | 34.6" | 200 |
| 44 | Vermont (VT) | 43.5°F (6.4°C) | 43.7" | 41 |
| 45 | Montana (MT) | 43.4°F (6.3°C) | 15.9" | 215 |
| 46 | Wyoming (WY) | 43.3°F (6.3°C) | 14.0" | 144 |
| 47 | Maine (ME) | 43.1°F (6.2°C) | 46.4" | 79 |
| 48 | Minnesota (MN) | 42.2°F (5.7°C) | 30.0" | 172 |
| 49 | North Dakota (ND) | 41.0°F (5.0°C) | 19.2" | 119 |
| 50 | Alaska (AK) | 33.5°F (0.8°C) | 47.6" | 172 |
Hot and wet or hot and dry?
High temperatures arrive through different climate profiles. Among the 10 hottest states, annual precipitation ranges from 12.4" (Arizona) to 60.3" (Louisiana). Desert states like Arizona and Nevada reach high annual means through extreme summer peaks and dry winters, while Gulf Coast states stay warm year-round with higher humidity and rainfall.
Station coverage by state
A state with more tracked locations produces a more granular average. Among the 10 hottest, Texas has the most tracked cities (449), while Hawaii has the fewest (49). Fewer stations can mean the average misses microclimates; open any state's page for its location breakdown.
How this ranking is built
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), each state's average temperature is derived from the 1991–2020 U.S. Climate Normals for every station-mapped location we track within that state, published in May 2021. We average across all tracked location records per state and rank from hottest to coldest. A large state with both desert and coastal stations can show a wide internal range even with a moderate statewide average; open any state's page for its location-by-location breakdown. The full derivation is documented in our methodology.
Caveats
A statewide average reflects only the cities in our database with a complete NOAA normal, not the state's entire land area, coverage is denser in populated regions than in remote rural areas. These normals end in 2020 and do not capture any warming trend since then. For a specific city's own numbers, humidity, and seasonal detail, open its city page.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
What a state average hides
A statewide number is a starting point, not the whole picture.
- Open a state page to see its own hottest and coldest cities, not just the average. Browse by state
- Heat plus humidity drives perceived comfort; assess humidity separately because it is not an input to the climate comfort score. Humidity & comfort
- Looking for the opposite? See the coldest U.S. states. Coldest states
NOAA 1991–2020 normals are typical-year averages, not forecasts, and exclude post-2020 trends.