2016 Weather Statistics

The year of 2016 is finally over. I did my research and examined how 2016 compared with the past for our area in the weather department.

First, 2016 made the top 5 list for warmest years on record. It was ranked as the second hottest ever, falling behind 2012. I want to remind you that this is the average temperature, or the combination of all the high and low temperatures:

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Temperatures in the summer of 2016 got hot! The all-time hottest temperature of the year was warmer than the average hottest temperature of any year in Bridgeport by a few degrees, but we did not break the all-time record high of 103 degrees set back in 1957 and 2011.

Now in terms of the lowest temperature for the year, we hit -6 degrees in February, which was actually the second coldest low temperature in history in Bridgeport. That it much colder than the average annual coldest temperature of 3 degrees:

We were in a drought for much of 2016, so the below, but near-average precipitation helps to explain that. In the past, annual precipitation has gone to extremes: from less than 20 inches of precipitation in 1948 to a very wet year with almost double the average precipitation in 1972.

Lastly, snowfall was pretty close to average as well. We picked up 32.6 inches of snow in 2016, which is a few inches above the annual average of 28.9 inches. Also, check out how lame of a year 1998 was for snow and the incredible surplus of white stuff pretty recently in 2003:

Overall, 2016 was a pretty normal year in terms of precipitation and snowfall, but it did feature some extreme temperatures, including the second warmest year on record.

#climate