PlainClimate

Hottest US States by 1991-2020 Average Temperatures

NOAA 1991-2020 temperatures rank Florida and Hawaii warmest and Alaska coldest, with a live 51-profile table and reproducible method.

Research period:

Research Question

Which US states among the 50 have the highest average annual temperatures based on 1991-2020 NOAA climate normals, using aggregated data from 15,492 weather stations?

Methodology

Aggregated data from states table for avg_temp, joined with stations table to sum station_count per state, pulled ann_tavg from annual_normals for cross-verification, grouped by state code, and ranked by temperature while filtering for states with over 100 stations. The cold comparison includes every state tied at the eighth-row cutoff.

Findings

Florida and Hawaii are the warmest states, nearly tied

By NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals, the two warmest US states are Florida, at a 72.6°F annual average, and Hawaii, at 72.4°F, effectively a tie.NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals, 1991-2020 Behind them sits a Gulf Coast cluster: Louisiana (67.2°F), Texas (66.2°F), and Mississippi (64.1°F). Four states clear a 65°F annual average, and the warmth comes from low latitude and, for Florida and Hawaii, the moderating influence of the surrounding ocean.

Warm does not always mean wet

Most of the hottest states are also rainy, but not all.NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals, 1991-2020 Louisiana averages about 60 inches of precipitation a year and Florida about 55 inches, while Hawaii receives roughly 49 inches statewide, a figure that hides enormous local variation between wet windward slopes and dry leeward coasts. Texas is the outlier, warm but semi-arid at about 31 inches a year. Snow is essentially absent across the warmest states, with Florida and Hawaii averaging near zero.

The cold end of the scale is dominated by Alaska

At the other extreme, Alaska averages just 33.5°F a year, far colder than any other state.NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals, 1991-2020 The next-coldest states, North Dakota (41.0°F), Minnesota (42.2°F), and Maine (43.1°F), are a full seven to ten degrees warmer. The gap reflects Alaska's high latitude and the long, dark winters that pull its annual mean down despite milder summers.

How to read these numbers

These are state averages from NOAA's 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals, 30-year baselines built from weather stations across each state and averaged to the state level.NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals, 1991-2020 A single state figure smooths over large internal differences, coastal versus inland and valley versus mountain, so it is best read as a broad comparison rather than a description of any one town. The values describe long-term climate normals, not the weather in any particular year.

Top 10 hottest U.S. states by annual mean temperature

1991–2020 NOAA Climate Normals, 30-year averages

°F
Source NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 Climate Normals As of 1991–2020 normals
What this showsFlorida leads at 72.6°F; Hawaii close second at 72.4°F. Gulf-Coast states cluster at 62.8–67.3°F; the Sun Belt extends west to Arkansas at 60.7°F.

How much colder are the eight coldest states plus 1 state tied at the cutoff than the cutoff?

All 9 states at or below the eighth-row cutoff; New Hampshire and Wisconsin tie at 44.5°F

°F below cutoff
Source NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 Climate Normals As of 1991–2020 normals
What this showsAlaska sits 8°F below #2 (North Dakota) - extreme outlier. Northern-tier and Mountain-West states cluster at 41–44.5°F; Alaska anchors the cold extreme at 33.5°F. New Hampshire and Wisconsin share the 44.5°F cutoff, and every cutoff tie is included. Each bar expresses a state's gap below that value, so a longer bar consistently means colder.

What this analysis cannot tell us

The data averages over 1991-2020 and does not reflect current warming trends beyond that period; it relies on station-based measurements that may not represent all areas within a state; aggregation at the state level masks local variations like urban vs. rural differences; elevation data from stations is not uniformly adjusted across states; some states have fewer stations, potentially skewing averages.

Related data

Sources

Every figure on PlainClimate is rendered directly from NOAA 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.