How much has the US warmed since 1895?

The contiguous US averaged 54.6°F in 2025. The warmest year since records began in 1895 was 2024, at 55.5°F. Through 2025, the dashed trend line, the straight line that best fits every year, rose about 0.18°F a decade, or 2.3°F since 1895, and warming had sped up to about 0.5°F a decade since 1970. Alaska and Hawaii aren't included.

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

The value axis doesn't start at zero, because the change is what matters here and a line drawn from zero would flatten it. The dashed line is the trend: the straight line that best fits every point (a least-squares fit). It shows the long-run direction; single years swing above and below it, and it isn't a forecast. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys to read exact values.

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Key facts

Measure: Average temperature, °F (contiguous U.S.). Written from the data below.

  • The latest figure, for 2025, is 54.62.
  • That is up 4.29 from 50.33 in 1895.
  • The highest was 55.48 in 2024.
  • The lowest was 50.05 in 1917.

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This chart is one of the 50 in The U.S. in 50 charts, 2026, a yearly report of the key numbers on how the country is doing.

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How to read this chart

Each point is one year's average temperature across the lower 48 states, in degrees Fahrenheit. The axis doesn't start at zero, so a small rise looks steep: read the numbers on the axis, not the height of the line. The dashed line is the trend, the straight line that best fits every year; single years bounce above and below it.

Questions to discuss

  1. Find the warmest and coolest years on the chart. How many degrees apart are they?
  2. Why might one year be much cooler than the year before, even while the trend line keeps rising?
  3. The axis doesn't start at zero here, but bar charts always do. Why is that fair for temperatures but not for bars?

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Source and date

Source
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Climate at a Glance
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How much has the US warmed since 1895?” Chart. Data: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Climate at a Glance, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/national/time-series (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/us-average-temperature (accessed November 7, 2026).

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The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Year Average temperature, °F (contiguous U.S.)
1895 50.33
1896 51.98
1897 51.54
1898 51.42
1899 50.99
1900 52.76
1901 51.86
1902 51.57
1903 50.61
1904 51.15
1905 50.99
1906 51.72
1907 51.47
1908 52.07
1909 51.42
1910 52.41
1911 52.02
1912 50.22
1913 51.53
1914 51.83
1915 51.43
1916 50.84
1917 50.05
1918 51.85
1919 51.54
1920 51.07
1921 53.79
1922 52.02
1923 51.63
1924 50.57
1925 52.51
1926 51.94
1927 52.14
1928 51.91
1929 50.85
1930 51.97
1931 53.52
1932 51.72
1933 52.98
1934 54.09
1935 51.88
1936 52.14
1937 51.54
1938 53.17
1939 53.25
1940 51.88
1941 52.64
1942 51.83
1943 52.06
1944 51.82
1945 51.74
1946 52.94
1947 51.91
1948 51.6
1949 52.01
1950 51.38
1951 51.11
1952 52.27
1953 53.35
1954 53.32
1955 51.68
1956 52.33
1957 52.03
1958 51.92
1959 52.1
1960 51.43
1961 51.86
1962 51.89
1963 52.25
1964 51.67
1965 51.67
1966 51.48
1967 51.75
1968 51.31
1969 51.49
1970 51.6
1971 51.65
1972 51.36
1973 52.28
1974 52.26
1975 51.49
1976 51.46
1977 52.54
1978 51.04
1979 50.88
1980 52.38
1981 53.11
1982 51.33
1983 51.87
1984 51.97
1985 51.29
1986 53.31
1987 53.32
1988 52.62
1989 51.82
1990 53.5
1991 53.15
1992 52.59
1993 51.25
1994 52.85
1995 52.65
1996 51.88
1997 52.19
1998 54.22
1999 53.87
2000 53.25
2001 53.68
2002 53.2
2003 53.24
2004 53.08
2005 53.63
2006 54.24
2007 53.64
2008 52.28
2009 52.38
2010 52.98
2011 53.17
2012 55.27
2013 52.42
2014 52.53
2015 54.38
2016 54.9
2017 54.54
2018 53.51
2019 52.66
2020 54.36
2021 54.5
2022 53.38
2023 54.36
2024 55.48
2025 54.62

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