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Has the climate in East Palo Alto changed?

East Palo Alto has warmed about 0.9°F between 1971 and 2017.

About 0.2°F per decade, measured from East Palo Alto's official daily weather records, 1971–2017. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? East Palo Alto's climate has warmed more slowly than most other cities in United States.

What has actually changed

Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span the headline and the chart use.

Freezing nights
4 fewer nights
1970s
16 / yr
Recent
12 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
+0.5°F
1970s
58.1°F
Recent
58.6°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
about the same
1970s
11 / yr
Recent
11 / yr
About the same number of heat days
Rainy days
15 fewer days
1970s
60 / yr
Recent
45 / yr
Drier on average

East Palo Alto's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1971 to 2017.

53°55°57°59°61°1971: 57.2°F1972: 57.8°F1973: 57.9°F1974: 57.6°F1975: 57.7°F1976: 58.4°F1977: 57.9°F1978: 58.4°F1979: 58.4°F1980: 57.5°F1981: 58.9°F1982: 56.5°F1983: 59.7°F1984: 58.9°F1985: 58.1°F1986: 58.7°F1987: 59.7°F1988: 58.7°F1989: 57.8°F1990: 57.3°F1991: 56.9°F1992: 58.2°F1993: 54.9°F1994: 54.7°F1995: 60.0°F1996: 60.4°F1997: 60.5°F1998: 58.5°F2001: 58.3°F2002: 57.9°F2003: 59.3°F2004: 58.8°F2005: 58.6°F2006: 57.9°F2007: 57.5°F2008: 57.4°F2009: 58.8°F2010: 57.8°F2011: 57.0°F2012: 57.7°F2013: 58.1°F2014: 60.4°F2015: 60.3°F2016: 59.4°F2017: 59.4°Flong-term trend19711980199020102017
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year

Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones. Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope, not a straight climb.

In day-to-day terms, that long-term shift shows up as about 3 fewer freezing nights a year compared with the 1970s.

When in the year the change shows up

How much warmer each month is now than in the 1970s. Useful if you garden or care about a particular season — otherwise the headline above already has the answer.

-0.5°0.0°+0.5°+1.0°January: +0.2°F+0.2JFebruary: -0.3°F-0.3FMarch: +0.6°F+0.6MApril: +0.4°F+0.4AMay: +0.6°F+0.6MJune: +0.9°F+0.9JJuly: +0.9°F+0.9JAugust: +0.2°F+0.2ASeptember: +0.9°F+0.9SOctober: +0.6°F+0.6ONovember: -0.1°F-0.1NDecember: +0.4°F+0.4D

September has warmed the most — about 1.0°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — the official 1991–2020 climate normals from NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals, measured at Palo Alto (NOAA GHCN station USC00046646), about 3 km from the city centre.

How we build these numbers →