Illinois State Water Survey - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

State Climatologist Office for Illinois

Top Ten Warmest Years in Illinois

 

Here are the top ten warmest years in Illinois based on the 1895-2016 record. Departure is defined as the difference from the 1901-2000 based period of 51.6 degrees. You will notice a lot of ties in the top ten list, especially #8.

Table 1. Top ten warmest years in Illinois since 1895.
Rank Year Annual Average Temperature (F) Departure from Normal (F)
1 2012 55.8 4.2
2 1998 55.2 3.6
3 1921 55.0 3.4
4 1931 54.9 3.3
5 2016 54.7 3.1
6 1938, 1987 54.1 2.5
7 2006 54.0 2.4
8 1946, 1953, 1954, 1991, 2005, 2007 53.7 2.1
9 1933, 1990 53.6 2.0
10 1999 53.5 1.9

These data are available at the National Center for Environmental Information extracted from the National Climatic Data Center records at this location on their website.