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- Utah experienced its second-warmest year in 2024, with temperatures 3.6 degrees above normal.
- Ten counties broke temperature records in what was a warmer-than-usual year across the U.S.
- Precipitation varied, leading to some Utah drought conditions by the end of the year.
SALT LAKE CITY — If last year felt warmer than usual, it was.
2024 was Utah's second-warmest year in at least the past 130 years, according to data released by the National Centers for Environmental Information late last week. Utah's average temperature of 51.2 degrees Fahrenheit ended up 3.6 degrees above its 20th-century normal and 0.1 degrees off the record set in 1934.
The agency, which has tracked data since 1895, notes that 10 counties, including Salt Lake and Washington, broke average temperature records last year while most other counties just barely missed setting records.
Utah was hardly alone in the heat, either. Last year was also the warmest across the whole contiguous U.S., as nearly every state broke a record or came close to one.
Meanwhile, Utah also collected an average of 12.69 inches of precipitation throughout 2024 — closer to its normal but also its 54th driest year, dating back to when federal records began in 1895. Precipitation varied by region in 2024, leaving the state with different water scenarios at the start of 2025.
Behind the trends
A few factors played into Utah's near-record-breaking 2024.
One was the reemergence of the El Niño oceanic pattern, which can lead to warmer ocean temperatures. William Anderegg, director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy at the University of Utah, said researchers have found that land heats up faster than the oceans, which may have factored into why so many states broke or nearly broke records.
El Niño also shook up American weather patterns after three straight La Niña winters, creating a host of interesting happenings across Utah. KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson points out that there were more instances where weather systems flowed into Utah came from the south and southwest, bringing warmer and drier air that generally boosts temperatures.
"When you've got that southerly and southwesterly flow, you never really tap into that Arctic or Siberian air. We never really got into a lot of cold weather, a lot of valley rain and mountain snow events," he said.
Then, during the summer, high-pressure systems set up in a way that shifted many monsoon storms east, benefitting southeast Utah and Colorado more than other parts of the Southwest.
This didn't change the warm trend, as Utah wound up with its second-hottest meteorological summer on record, even after storms finally pushed through more regions in August. Johnson explained that fewer storms create fewer cooldowns and less cloud cover overall.
Warm and dry conditions lingered into fall as oceanic patterns changed again.
It wasn't until the second half of December that storms returned to the state on a more regular basis. By then, they started following a more traditional La Niña pattern that gives northern Utah slightly higher odds for precipitation and southern Utah slightly lower odds.
Bringing the heat
Adding it all together, Beaver, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Kane, Piute, Salt Lake, San Juan, Washington and Wayne counties all broke average temperature records dating back to 1895. Only Duchesne and Summit counties — both ending up with their sixth-warmest year on record — didn't place in the top five in the category last year.
The state's average maximum temperature of 64.1 degrees was its third-warmest behind 1934 and 2012. Its average minimum low of 38.4 degrees broke a record dating back to 2015, per the data.
Anderegg said minimum lows have become an increasing factor in rising average temperatures in the state. He explained that it's believed to be tied to greenhouse gases trapping daytime heat, factoring in a growing number of excessive heat warnings.
It's one reason why nine of the state's 10 hottest years have come since 2000. "It's something happening globally, and it's really clear here in Utah," he said.
Scattered drought
2024 was a tale of two halves when it came to precipitation. Utah ended the first half of the year on pace for its 48th-wettest year on record, but it ended up with its 28th-driest second half — leading to its 54th driest year on record overall.
Millard, Sanpete and Sevier counties in central Utah were the biggest winners in the end, posting totals near or above an inch higher than normal — 34th to 43rd in their respective histories. Washington County had the driest anomaly, landing 4.17 inches below normal — its 22nd-driest calendar year on record.
Northern, central and southeast regions of the state had strong first halves of precipitation, only for most of those regions to have much drier second halves.
It's why drought conditions briefly ended in mid-2024 only to return with force a few weeks later, continuing into 2025. About 17% of the state remains in either moderate or severe drought, while nearly the rest of the state remains abnormally dry.
While the state's reservoir system remains 77% full, Jordan Clayton, a hydrologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, told KSL.com last week that it could impact the efficiency of this year's snowpack runoff.
If recent storms continue battering northern Utah while skipping southern Utah, he said, this could lead to different water scenarios later this year — especially in southwest Utah.
"We have water in those reservoirs, but those can quickly run out in the summer because we're not going to replenish them," Johnson adds. "You can really pull the rug on a good thing you've got going in about a year if you're not getting the precipitation."
