TAMPA, Fla. — If you thought 2023 was hot, it wasn't your imagination. Tampa recorded its hottest year on record in 2023, according to numbers released by the National Weather Service.
The NWS recorded an average temperature from 1/1/2023 to 12/28/2023 of 76.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 0.2 degrees hotter than the previous record for the hottest year set in 2022 at 76.4 degrees.
NWS numbers showed that more than half of the hottest years since records began in 1890 have happened since 2017.
Warmest years on record for many Tampa area cities
Elsewhere in the Tampa Bay region, St. Petersburg also set a record for the warmest year since records began in 2014. St. Petersburg's average temperature in 2023 was 76.5 degrees, just edging out the previous record of 76.4 degrees set in 2020 and 2015.
The story was the same in Plant City, which smashed its record for hottest year at 77.1 degrees, a half-degree warmer than the previous record holder in 2020. Lakeland also saw its hottest year on record at 76.2 degrees, 0.5 degrees above the previous record in 2020.
Venice and Sarasota also broke and tied their record warmest years in 2023.
If you were looking for a cool spot in the Tampa region, Winter Haven came in a full degree lower (75.6 degrees) than its record warmest year in 2019.
Rainfall doesn't keep up with the heat
While temperatures were hitting record levels, rainfall was going the other way. According to the NWS, Tampa's normal rainfall for the year is 49.48 inches. However, in 2023, rainfall totaled just 37.15 inches in Tampa, more than 12 inches below normal.
St. Petersburg saw an even larger gap between the average rainfall of 46.65 inches and the recorded rainfall as of 12/28/2023 of 33.63 inches, more than 13 inches below normal.
Plant City had a smaller shortage of rain, around 4.5 inches for the year. Lakeland also saw a rainfall gap of more than 5 inches for the year.
But no cities were as dry as Sarasota and Venice.
According to the NWS, Sarasota's rainfall was nearly 22 inches below normal, while Venice's rainfall was 21.56 inches below normal.
