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Has the climate in Watertown changed?

Watertown has warmed about 1.7°F between 1991 and 2024.

About 0.5°F per decade, measured from Watertown's official daily weather records, 1991–2024. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Watertown'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.

Average temperature
+1.2°F
1970s
43.2°F
Recent
44.4°F
A steady upward drift

Watertown's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1991 to 2024.

38°40°42°44°46°48°1991: 45.1°F1992: 43.4°F1993: 40.9°F1994: 43.0°F1995: 42.8°F1996: 39.1°F1997: 41.6°F1998: 45.4°F1999: 45.8°F2000: 43.9°F2001: 44.0°F2002: 43.8°F2003: 43.6°F2004: 43.9°F2005: 45.3°F2006: 46.1°F2007: 44.5°F2008: 41.2°F2009: 41.3°F2010: 43.7°F2011: 42.8°F2012: 47.0°F2013: 41.2°F2014: 40.9°F2015: 46.3°F2016: 47.2°F2017: 44.7°F2018: 42.5°F2019: 40.8°F2020: 44.6°F2021: 46.3°F2022: 42.7°F2023: 45.4°F2024: 46.6°Flong-term trend19912000201020202024
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.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — 1991–2020 normals computed from 30 years of daily observations at Watertown Municipal Arpt, a weather station, about 3 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →