2024 will be the warmest year on record in South Bend / Michiana
2024 will be the warmest year ever recorded in South Bend, records that date back to 1895. The average temperature of 54.0 degrees may not seem that impressive and finishing a half degree warmer the previous record year of 1921 may seem negligible. However, this is an average of all the highs and lows over the past 365 days, it’s a big shift!
How we go there also tells a story, we started the year with the second warmest winter, and warmest February on record and most months ranked in the top 20 or higher.
The way the year played out was highly predictable. A warming climate is being verified, the cold season is shirking and El Niño years are typically hotter.
Climate Stipes for St. Joseph Co, IN -- Red = Warm, Blue = Cold
Over our local one-hundred-plus-year climate record we would alternate between cold and warm years, now there’s a solid trend. Our last true cold year was more than a decade ago and is less likely to happen in the future. It is more likely we will set a record warmest year, topping this year, in the next decade.
South Bend is the official climate site for our region, so this record is someone we share with all of Michiana, and we are not alone, this will be the warmest year on record for most, and likely word wide. This is verification of climate science and predictions of a warming climate. How we use the information is a political process, but the data itself is not.
Watch our climate special Sudden Shift
Explore national climate data from NOAA
Explore global climate change data form NASA