PENNSYLVANIA, USA — 2023 is now one of the warmest years ever on record for northeastern and central Pennsylvania, coming in at number 2 for the Scranton area and number 1 for the Williamsport area.
Milwaukee, Nashville, San Antonio, and Burlington, Vermont, are all reporting the warmest year on record, too, and scientists say it will likely be Earth's hottest year on record, too, but December's data is not official yet.
"This is in line with ongoing trends across central Pennsylvania and really across the globe. According to the experts at the IPCC, the global temperature has risen 2 degrees above the longer-term average, and actually, 9 of the top 13 warmest years on record at Williamsport have occurred since 1998, so this is a trend we have seen ongoing for the past couple of decades," said Meteorologist Michael Colbert, National Weather Service.
According to the National Weather Service, which documents the high and low temperatures for each day of the month at Williamsport Regional Airport and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, the average temperature for 2023 in central Pennsylvania was 54 degrees, and in northeastern Pennsylvania, it was 53.3 degrees.
This means three of the past four years are now considered some of the warmest since record-keeping began in 1900.
Here in the Scranton area, 2020 is still at number 1, 2023 is at number 2, and 2021 is at number 3. In Williamsport, 2020 and 2021 are also in the top 10 at 6 and 7.
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service say that isn't all that surprising, considering we have been in a La Nina pattern for the past three winters, the weather phenomena when Pacific Ocean waters are cooler than average.
"And that actually has ramifications across the whole western hemisphere. Cold air tends to get locked up over the western portions of North America in those cases, and warmer air moves up via southerly flow across the Eastern US and including Pennsylvania, so that has actually contributed to some of the warmer weather over the past few years," Colbert said.
So, how exactly did we get here? It was the colder months.
January and February were well above average, and in mid-April, the Williamsport area hit 90 degrees.
The summer months really weren't all that hot, but then we saw the return of those above-average temperatures in September through the end of the year, and the mild December specifically really solidified that number 1 spot for central Pennsylvania.
And something else to note: We have now shifted into an El Nino winter, which has a weaker influence on the temperatures here in Pennsylvania and a stronger influence on the moisture and the types of storms we might see. El Nino winters tend to see more coastal storms.
Keep up to date with the latest Stormtracker 16 forecast HERE.
Check out severe weather tips on WNEP's YouTube channel.