Average Temperature by State: All 50 States Ranked

Across NOAA's weather-station network, the average annual temperature runs from 74.1°F in Florida at the top to 32.8°F in Alaska at the bottom — a spread of more than 40 degrees between the warmest and coldest states. The Deep South clusters in the mid-60s, the Midwest and interior West sit in the 40s and low 50s, and the northern Plains and Rockies anchor the cold end. Three things decide where a state lands: latitude (how far north), elevation (how high) and distance from the ocean (how moderated). The rankings below come from averaging daily highs and lows at every reporting station in each state, 2015–2024.

The Coldest State in the Lower 48 Isn't the Northernmost One

Ask most people to name the coldest of the contiguous states and they'll say North Dakota or Minnesota — the ones that sit right on the Canadian border. They're close, but they're wrong. The coldest state in the Lower 48 by annual average is Wyoming, at 40.9°F — below North Dakota (42.1°F) and Montana (42.5°F), both of which are farther north.

The reason is elevation. Wyoming's weather stations average about 5,700 feet above sea level in our data — the highest of any state except Colorado — while North Dakota's average around 1,600 feet. Air cools roughly 3–5°F for every 1,000 feet you climb, so Wyoming's extra 4,000 feet of altitude more than erases the head-start its lower latitude should give it. It's the cleanest example in the country of altitude beating latitude.

Colorado is the tell that proves the rule. Its stations sit even higher than Wyoming's (about 6,200 feet), yet Colorado is warmer (43.8°F) — because it's farther south still. Push a state up and south and the two effects partly cancel; push it up without the southern latitude, as Wyoming does, and you get the coldest average in the Lower 48. For the coldest cities specifically — where Alaska and the “Icebox of the Nation” in Minnesota take over — see our ranking of the coldest cities in America.

Why the South Owns the Top of the List

Eight of the ten warmest states border the Gulf of Mexico or the subtropical Atlantic. The recipe is simple: low latitude for strong sun, and a warm ocean next door that both heats summers and blunts winters. The Gulf is the engine — the same warm, humid air that makes Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama some of the rainiest states in America also keeps their nights warm, which pulls the daily average up.

The ocean effect cuts the other way too. Notice how the West Coast states sit lower than you'd expect for their latitude: California (58.9°F) and especially Oregon (48.8°F) and Washington (47.5°F) are moderated by the cold Pacific, which caps their summers in the low-to-mid 60s even in July. That gap is real: Oregon's summer average (64.8°F) runs about 19°F below Texas's (83.9°F), even though the two sit at a similar distance from the equator.

Winter vs. Summer: Which States Swing Hardest

The annual average hides how wild a state's year actually is. The seasonal swing — summer average minus winter average — tells you that story, and it's almost entirely a map of distance from the ocean.

The northern Plains swing the hardest. North Dakota runs 15°F in winter and 69°F in summer — a 53-degree gap, the biggest in the country. Minnesota is right behind at 52°F. With no ocean and no mountains to moderate it, the continental interior bakes in July and freezes solid in January. South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin all clear a 46-degree swing.

At the other extreme are the states the ocean holds in check. Hawaii swings just 4.9°F across the entire year; Florida only 19.3°F. Coastal California, Oregon and Washington all stay under 31°F of swing. If you hate temperature extremes, the numbers point you to a coast — any coast.

Are States Getting Warmer?

Yes — and the ranking above is a snapshot that keeps drifting. Every state's modern average sits above its 20th-century baseline, and the warming isn't spread evenly across the calendar: winters and overnight lows have risen faster than summer afternoons, which is part of why a warm-winter state like Florida holds its lead. We've measured the shift directly — the cities where summer has warmed most since 1990 and the run of record heat that has made 2026 one of the hottest years on record. The related shift in the growing season shows up in our finding that the first fall frost now arrives later in every major city we measured.

A note on Alaska: our 32.8°F figure reflects populated coastal and interior stations. NOAA's official statewide normal, which weights the vast, sparsely-monitored far north, is lower — around 26°F. Alaska is also warming faster than any other state, roughly 3°F since the 1920s per the NOAA/NCEI state climate summary, versus about 1.8°F for the Lower 48.