Climate Matters: January heat records outpace winter records as climate warms
Much of the country is still recovering from a monster winter storm, but January has been marked by a high number of heat records.
From record-low snowpack in the West to numerous high temperature records shattered coast to coast, the start of the year has been more indicative of a rapidly warming climate.
So far this year, over 200 temperature records have been broken nationwide, according to data collected by the nonprofit Climate Central. A vast majority (171) of these records were daily high temperature records set in the first half of the month, which is four times the number of low temperature records set in January (40).
Missouri has somewhat deviated from this trend, with two high temperature records set in St. Louis and St. Joseph, and four low temperature records shared among St. Joseph, Joplin, and Springfield.
Longer-term trends still show Missouri is warming up fast. In the 2020s decade so far, Columbia has set 35 daily temperature records, and 77% of them were high temperatures. St. Louis is breaking even more daily highs, with 95% of daily temperature records set in St. Louis in the 2010s and 2020s being new high temperature records.
Winter is warming faster than any other season for 76% of the country, including the Show-Me state. According to Climate Central, Columbia's rate of warming during the winter over the past 50 years is over 5 degrees Fahrenheit, while other seasons have warmed between 2 and 3 degrees.
That has shortened our winter by weeks in certain metrics. Columbia now experiences 21 fewer days below freezing compared to half a century ago, and it also sees an additional week of extremely warm winter days above the 90th temperature percentile (the warmest 10% of days).
Warmer winters have cascading effects across all seasons, leading to reduced snowfall, extended growing and allergy seasons, and the prolonged presence of bugs and pests. Columbia's freeze-free growing season has already expanded by nearly a week since the 1970s.
