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The single hottest temperature on record for this region was 134°F in Death Valley, California on July 10, 1913; the coldest temperature on record was -80°F in Prospect Creek, Alaska on January 23, 1971.
The five Pacific Coast cities covered in this report are Barrow, Alaska; Bellingham, Washington; and Los Angeles, Red Bluff and San Diego, California.
The Farmers Almanac website data collected by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), is the source for temperatures charted for the five cities above as recorded on January 1 every fifth year from 1945-2015, and January 1, 2016.
Barrow, AK is the U.S. northernmost city located 300-plus miles north of the Arctic Circle with a cold and dry, polar climate.
Bellingham, WA is the northernmost city in the Continental U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that based on nationwide average temperatures, 2016 was the second hottest year on record.
Readers looking at temperatures on January 1st in these two cities will note their highest (warmest) temperatures occurred in different years; i.e.,. 2005 for Barrow, and 2010 for Bellingham.
Conversely, Barrow’s lowest (coldest) New Year’s Day temperature was in 1975, whereas Bellingham’s was in 1985.
San Diego, CA is the USA’s southernmost city on the Pacific coast.
The warmest New Year’s day there was in 1990. January 1, 2016 ranks the sixth warmest. San Diego’s high temperature reached only 55.9°F in 1965, only slightly warmer than New Year’s Day low of 54°F in 1955.
Red Bluff in northern California is approximately 75 miles from the midpoint between Bellingham and San Diego.
Its warmest January 1 was in 1980. The highest high, and the highest low temperatures were both greater than on any other New Year’s Day on the graph. In both 1960 and 1965, Red Bluff’s temperature on January 1 peaked at 46°F.
Al Gore raised concerns about global warming based on what he claimed were worldwide temperature spikes in 2005. However, Red Bluff’s New Year’s Day high that year was more than 10 degrees colder than 25 years earlier.
Los Angeles is the largest city on the west coast.
Like Red Bluff in northern California, Los Angeles experienced its warmest New Year’s Day in 1980 – a high of 71°F and a low of 52°F.
The coolest in Los Angeles on January 1 was 54°F, recorded in 1960, the same year Red Bluff had its coldest New Year’s Day temperature of 46°F, which was matched in 1965.
Averages vs Actuals
NOAA calculated that average U.S. temperatures in 2016 rose to 54.9°F, based on its data collected nationwide over several decades.
Yet, even from this small sampling it is interesting to compare “average” temperatures for the cities above with actual recorded temperatures on the New Year’s Days charted.
Differences between average and actual temperatures could influence decisions to be made about appropriate clothing for New Year’s Day activities, among others, when visiting a city away from home. Likewise, local residents need reliable information for planning the day’s activities.
This report reflects temperature changes on January 1st, every 5 years from 1945 – 2015 and 2016, in five East Coast cities from Maine to Florida.
Typical climate in the region, in excerpts from world atlas online is described as:
New England states experience warm summers with cool mornings and pleasant evening conditions. Winters in the northeast “…are often quite cold with heavy snow and sub-freezing temperatures…;” and, occasional hurricanes “…strike the eastern coastline and Gulf of Mexico states from June through October.”
Madawaska, Maine is the northernmost city on the East Coast, and Key West, Florida is the southernmost.
The first chart below shows average highest and lowest temperatures for the cities mentioned above, and for JFK Airport in Jamaica, New York; Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts and Norfolk International Airport in Virginia.
The Maine and Florida charts arrange the years in order of the lowest temperatures for each January 1st in the 1945-2015 and 2016 time period. 
Lowest temperature on January 1 in Maine occurred in 2015; the highest in 1945.
Lowest temperature in Key West on January 1 occurred in 1945. The highest of 84.9°F occurred in 2016; topping the previous high of 84.4°F in 1945. 
JFK and Logan Airport charts list years in order of the highest temperatures for each January 1st in the 1945-2015 and 2016 time frame. 
JFK’s New Year’s Day temperature of 61°F in 2005 was the highest on that day in 60 years.
The lowest temperature occurring on the first day of the year in the same period was 21°F in 1970.
Highest January 1st temperature at Logan Airport in Boston was 59°F recorded in 1945.
Boston’s lowest New Year’s Day temperature of 16°F was recorded in 1970. 
Norfolk International Airport in Virginia is midway between Madawaska and Key West. 
Norfolk’s temperature on January 1, 1985 was the highest recorded for the 71-year period, at 75°F.
Lowest of 25°F was on January 1, 2015.
Perspectives and laws on a number of issues, including global warming – now climate change, will take interesting turns after January 20, 2017. Indeed, president-elect Trump has held meetings already with Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio. Both are high-profile, heavy investors in climate change politics and business.
Therefore, to study national weather patterns is relevant, looking first to Missouri, home of the Enterprise. Farmer’s Almanac website facilitates searches of daily temperatures by zip code, that the National Climatic Data Center has recorded since January 1, 1945.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report, Climate in Missouri:
All of Missouri experiences “extreme” climate events and such events must be considered part of the normal climate (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/Image/dvn/downloads/Clim_MO_01.pdf).
Warsaw holds the record for the coldest temperature recorded in Missouri with -40°F on February 13, 1905. Along with Union, Mo., Warsaw also experienced the hottest recorded temperature of 118°F on July 14, 1954.
Because of their greater populations and the broader impacts of extreme events (albeit ‘normal’ for Missouri), data on three major cities on January 1st – St. Louis in east Missouri, Kansas City in the west, and Springfield in the south, is highlighted for this study.
Recall that in January 2006 Al Gore warned that global warming and greenhouse gases left unchecked would destroy the planet within a decade.
Some consider his work suspect. January 22, 2016, Investors.com, published an article entitled: “Five Ways We Know Al Gore’s Been Running A Global Warming Racket.” (http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/al-gore-runs-global-warming-racket/).
Others proclaim that Gore has finally been taken seriously. Wired.com’s article on May 24, 2016 claimed: “10 Years After an Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore May Actually Be Winning” (https://www.wired.com/2016/05/wired-al-gore-climate-change/).
Nevertheless, the charts below tell their own story, at least the part of it about changes over the past 16 years in this part of the country. Not only is the data between and among years useful for detecting trends over time, but the daily temperature changes between high and low are sometimes extreme.
Part II will look at temperature records for the same time period on the East Coast; and Part III, on the West Coast.
Enterprise Extra 