Tampa Hottest Year Record - Eric Oglesby NWS

The official numbers are still a few days away, but preliminary figures show 2023 is Tampa's warmest year on record, narrowly beating out 2022. We speak with Meteorologist Eric Oglesby at the National Weather Service for the Tampa Bay area in Ruskin.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the Newsfrom the WFLA radio newsroom. Tampa has
unofficially set a new record for itswarmest year in history. They're still crunching
the numbers. That looks like twentytwenty three, we'll set a new record
for recorded hottest year in Tampa.We have Eric Ogles b with the National
Weather Service Tampa Bay office in Ruscin. He's a meteorologist there and he'll help

(00:22):
us understand the numbers. Eric Oglesbe welcome, Thank you very much.
All right, so this is apparentlya very narrow difference here, looks like
about two tenths of a degree.Can you break that down for us?
Right, So, for the Tampaarea, specifically Tampa International Airport where the

(00:44):
recordings are done, the average temperaturefor the year preliminarily was seventy six point
six degrees, and the previous recordall time was seventy six point four degrees,
which was actually set the previous yearin twenty twenty two. Our top
three warmest years that Tampa have beenthree of the last four years, and

(01:04):
again this is going to be theaverage temperature and that's based on basically through
the entire year. You take allthe highs and lows and average them out,
and you get this number. That'scorrect, That's exactly the way it
works now, this average temperature,I would take it as closely related to

(01:26):
rainfall. Perhaps we had a summerthat was a little drier than usual in
a lot of places, and thatpresumably is going to make the numbers go
up. Would that be correct understanding, Yes, it's actually a combination of
two things. One, we didhave less rainfall, which created in situations

(01:47):
like that, you have more sunshine, so temperatures are generally a few degrees
warmer. But also the water temperaturesthis year were a couple degrees warmer than
normal. And seeing as a lotof our communities right here near the coast,
we did have west winds a lotof the summer off those warm waters,
and that caused temperatures to be afew degrees higher. And I would

(02:08):
think that that would have the mosteffect at night, when the water is
warmer than the land exactly, andwe had a lot of nights here where
the low temperatures were in the rangeof seventy eight to eighty one degrees.
There was even one night I canremember in Saint Pete, a clearwater airport

(02:29):
with the low was actually eighty sixdegrees. That's not very low. Now,
were there any other nearby communities thatset records in this area for having
their warmest year on record? Thereactually were a number of sites in Saint
Pete, Plant City, Lakeland.Most communities in west central Florida did see

(02:52):
record or at least near record warmtemperatures for the entire year. And it
seems like, given the communities thatyou cited, this is an effect of
those winds coming off the Gulf therethat as you got farther inland, that
would have less of an impact.That's exactly right, So once you get

(03:15):
into say interior Pole County, ithas a lesser effect. They were still
well above normal, but not tothe record levels, and that's as you
mentioned. You're still crunching those numbersand the final numbers should be completed in
a few days. But it soundslike this is a trend, and maybe

(03:38):
a little bit of an uncomfortable trend, especially in the summer months. Definitely,
yes, this has been a trendfor the last few years and it
will likely continue. Eric Oglesby,a meteorologist with the National Weather Service,
Tampa Bay office in Ruskin. Thankyou very much for joining us on beyond
the news. Okay, you're welcome.