Climate-Zone.com

HomeCitiesUnited StatesKentuckyFrankfortTools › Climate trends

Has the climate in Frankfort changed?

Frankfort has warmed about 1.6°F between 1971 and 2001.

About 0.5°F per decade, measured from Frankfort's official daily weather records, 1971–2001. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Frankfort's warming is broadly in line with other cities in United States — neither unusually fast nor unusually slow.

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
1 more night
1970s
103 / yr
Recent
104 / yr
Colder winters — more frosts
Average temperature
+1.0°F
1970s
53.8°F
Recent
54.8°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
5 more days
1970s
19 / yr
Recent
24 / yr
More days of serious heat
Rainy days
17 more days
1970s
117 / yr
Recent
134 / yr
Wetter on average

Frankfort's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1971 to 2001.

50°52°54°56°58°60°1971: 55.2°F1972: 54.3°F1973: 56.1°F1974: 54.4°F1975: 54.0°F1976: 52.8°F1977: 53.4°F1978: 53.8°F1979: 51.1°F1980: 53.3°F1981: 52.7°F1982: 54.9°F1983: 55.6°F1984: 52.9°F1985: 55.2°F1986: 55.9°F1987: 55.9°F1988: 53.8°F1989: 53.8°F1990: 56.0°F1991: 55.7°F1992: 53.4°F1993: 54.3°F1994: 54.5°F1995: 54.0°F1996: 53.1°F1997: 53.5°F1998: 55.5°F1999: 55.9°F2000: 55.2°F2001: 58.9°Flong-term trend19711980199020002001
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 11 fewer freezing nights a year and about 2 fewer days above 90°F 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.

-2.0°-1.5°-1.0°-0.5°0.0°+0.5°+1.0°+1.5°+2.0°January: -0.5°F-0.5JFebruary: +1.6°F+1.6FMarch: -0.9°F-0.9MApril: +0.2°F+0.2AMay: +0.3°F+0.3MJune: +0.0°F+0.0JJuly: -1.0°F-1.0JAugust: -0.2°F-0.2ASeptember: -0.9°F-0.9SOctober: +0.1°F+0.1ONovember: -1.9°F-1.9NDecember: -0.9°F-0.9D

November has cooled the most — about 1.9°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — 1991–2020 normals computed from 11 years of daily observations at Frankfort Downtown, a weather station, inside the city. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →