LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Locals know, 2024 was a hot year here in Las Vegas. In fact, we tied for the hottest year on record with 2017.
Both years produced an average temperature of 72.3 degrees, but only last year produced the all-time hottest temperature of 120 degrees, the hottest summer on record and a record 112 days over 100 degrees.
All that record heat puts us in lockstep with global temperatures. NASA and NOAA just made the official announcement: 2024 was the warmest year on record.
As you can imagine it's no easy task to calculate Earth's average temperature, but using tens of thousands of weather stations, ships and ocean buoys across the globe, these agencies have been able to determine that 10 out of the 10 hottest years on record occurred within the last decade.
You can check out the data here.
Warming patterns are the best way scientists can measure the influence of climate change - a trend that's influencing other environmental impacts, like worsening drought here at home.
In fact, we're in the midst of the second longest dry stretch on record here in Las Vegas. That's 183 days without measurable rain in Las Vegas as of Sunday, Jan. 12.
According to NOAA's analysis, there were 27 disasters in 2024 that amounted to losses of more than a billion dollars each. The second most on record since the previous year which was 28 in 2023. These disasters include drought, wildfires, hurricanes, tornado, flooding and other severe weather occurrences. The agency has been keeping tabs on the numbers since 1980.
The 1980–2024 annual average is 9.0 events; the annual average for the most recent 5 years (2020–2024) is 23.0 events.
