Common questions
What is the coldest state?
Alaska, with an average annual temperature of 28.0°F over 1991–2020.
What is the hottest state?
Florida, with an average annual temperature of 71.4°F over 1991–2020.
Why use a 30-year average?
A single year can be unusually warm or cold. Climatologists describe typical conditions with 30-year averages, and 1991–2020 is the most recent standard period.
What this ranking measures
Average annual air temperature across the whole state, 1991–2020, in degrees Fahrenheit. The mean of the 12 monthly statewide averages.
A statewide average blends mountains, coasts and cities, so most places in a state are warmer or colder than this figure. Alaska’s series uses a different base climatology from the contiguous states; Hawaii’s statewide series begins in 1991.
The size of the gap
The difference between the highest and lowest state estimates is 43.4°F. NOAA publishes an average for the contiguous 48 states (53.3°F for 1991–2020), not one for all 50.
How much should you read into a rank?
NOAA does not publish margins of error for statewide averages. Each value is an area-weighted average of a gridded analysis built from weather stations, so it describes the whole state, not any one town. “Not published” means uncertainty is not quantified here, not that the estimates are exact.
Ranks use the full precision of the source file, so only truly equal values share a rank (1, 2, 2, 4).
Keep exploring
Explore the same states in a side-by-side comparison, or combine this measure with others in the custom ranking tool.
Source and method
- Producer
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
- Product / file
- nClimDiv statewide climate data · climdiv-norm-tmpcst (period 0010)
- Period
- 1991–2020 average
- Unit
- Degrees Fahrenheit
- Calculation
- Mean of the 12 published monthly statewide averages for 1991–2020 (period code 0010). These are NOAA period averages, not the station-based U.S. Climate Normals. Rank = 1 + number of eligible jurisdictions with a higher value.
- Coverage
- The 50 states are ranked. Washington, D.C., can be added with the toggle above the table; Puerto Rico is shown for reference only, where the source covers it.
- Cadence
- Updated monthly; 30-year period averages change once a decade. The 1991–2020 average is fixed; the next standard period is 2001–2030.
- Independence
- Rank the States is independent. The agencies that produce the source data do not endorse these rankings.
Download, cite, or embed
Download the default full table (CSV) or use the download above for the table’s current filter and order. Data dictionary and source metadata
Updates and corrections
Last updated Oct. 23, 2026. Earlier editions stay available on the data page, and every change is listed in the update log. If a number or definition looks wrong, report an error with the state, value, and source you checked.