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Has the climate in Salt Lake City changed?

Salt Lake City has warmed about 2.6°F between 1971 and 2015.

About 0.6°F per decade, measured from Salt Lake City's official daily weather records, 1971–2015. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Salt Lake City'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
41 fewer nights
1970s
141 / yr
Recent
100 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
+2.0°F
1970s
50.7°F
Recent
52.7°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
3 more days
1970s
45 / yr
Recent
48 / yr
More days of serious heat
Rainy days
18 fewer days
1970s
94 / yr
Recent
76 / yr
Drier on average

Salt Lake City's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1971 to 2015.

45°47°49°51°53°55°57°59°61°63°1971: 49.8°F1972: 50.8°F1973: 49.5°F1974: 51.3°F1975: 49.1°F1976: 50.0°F1977: 51.7°F1978: 51.2°F1979: 50.8°F1980: 52.1°F1981: 52.5°F1982: 50.2°F1983: 51.9°F1984: 49.0°F1985: 50.4°F1986: 53.1°F1987: 53.4°F1988: 53.5°F1989: 52.5°F1990: 53.2°F1991: 51.8°F1992: 53.9°F1993: 49.8°F1994: 53.9°F1995: 53.8°F1996: 53.2°F1997: 52.8°F1998: 52.7°F1999: 53.1°F2000: 54.1°F2001: 54.2°F2002: 51.7°F2003: 54.0°F2004: 51.4°F2005: 52.8°F2006: 52.8°F2007: 51.1°F2008: 49.0°F2009: 55.3°F2012: 62.8°F2013: 50.3°F2014: 52.6°F2015: 46.5°Flong-term trend19711980199020002015
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 29 fewer freezing nights a year and about 5 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.

-1.0°-0.5°0.0°+0.5°+1.0°+1.5°January: -0.3°F-0.3JFebruary: -0.1°F-0.1FMarch: +0.2°F+0.2MApril: -1.0°F-1.0AMay: -0.2°F-0.2MJune: +0.2°F+0.2JJuly: +1.3°F+1.3JAugust: +1.0°F+1.0ASeptember: +1.1°F+1.1SOctober: -0.4°F-0.4ONovember: +0.5°F+0.5NDecember: +0.3°F+0.3D

July has warmed the most — about 1.3°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 Farmington 3 NW (NOAA GHCN station USC00422726), about 29 km from the city centre.

How we build these numbers →