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The hottest day of the year 1990 in Rochester New York didn't occur in the summer. It occurred on Saturday April 28th when the mercury reached 93 degrees, a staggering 35 degrees above the average high temperature for April 28th.
Interesting that the heat wave extended so far north in April that year. In Toronto, April 25th and 26th were the 2nd and (tied) 3rd hottest days of that year, at 31.1C and 30.4C respectively. The title for hottest day was denied on July 4th, with a temperature of 35.4C.
Speaking of early-season heat waves, I remember the March 2012 heat wave. Toronto hit 26.0C on March 22nd which was the largest temperature anomaly I ever witnessed with ~20C above seasonal. Ottawa hit 27.4C on March 21st, a temperature anomaly of ~23C above seasonal.
March 2012 was intense for a large part of North America. Some places had summer weather in the middle of March. This is a screenshot from that month. From the site (Weather.com maybe??) Sault Ste. Marie reached 82F/28C on March 21st. The previous daily record was 57F/14C and the average high is only 36F/2C.
In March 2012, we got 80-85 for about a week in Western New York State. Still nothing compared to 1988 when we had nearly 2 weeks of 90 degrees or better. Even Charlotte, Sea Breeze, and Hamlin Beach on the Lake Ontario shore hit the upper 80s during that heat wave and locales in the Finger Lakes like Canandaigua and Geneva broke 100 for multiple days in July of '88.
In Pershore in 2011 the hottest day of the year didn't occur in the summer. It happened on 1 October with 28.4°C, this also being the hottest October temperature ever for Pershore and only 0.4°C from the September record high.
Not the case in the London area. Heathrow has recorded 1684.9 hrs up to yesterday, so barely above average for the year. It is the sunniest year since 2014, and before than 2005 , after a decade of very cloudy years.
Eastbourne on the coast recorded 2007 hours to the end of November, so I doubt that any SE location will get anywhere near their 2nd sunniest on record.
The sunny summer offset the incredibly cloudy spring.
The one day of the year with an average temperature below freezing per 1981-2010 averages in Bowling Green, KY is... drum roll please...
December 25!
Yes, that's right, using the 1981-2010 norms, Christmas Day is the coldest day of the year with an average of 31.1 F / -0.6 C!
This is a slight statistical anomaly as every other day of December aside from the 24th and 26th average at least 35.1 F / 1.7 C. The next day with an average colder than 35.1 is January 8, and all of the other sub-35.1 average days are clustered between January 8 and January 27.
Yet somehow, Christmas is the coldest day - by a shot. January 19 comes in second at 32.6 F / 0.3 C. It has the joint-coldest lowest average low with January 19 at 23.5 F / -4.8 C, and is the lone day with an average high below 41.0 F / 5.0 C with 38.7 F / 3.7 C.
If you use the entire 1893-2018 period of record (excluding the first 19 days of 2019 so we have 126 full years), January 28th takes the cake with a 35.0 F / 1.7 C mean. Nevertheless, 1981-2010 is the currently accepted climate normal period so that's why I used it. We'll see if 1991-2020 keeps Christmas in the lead, but we've had some pretty warm Christmases this decade so it's doubtful.
Looking at previous climate normals' coldest days:
1971-2000: Feb. 8, 30.8 F / -0.7 C. Christmas: 32.6 F / 0.3 C, 11th coldest (and coldest outside Jan. 5 - Feb. 9)
1961-1990: Jan. 11, 29.2 F / -1.6 C. Christmas: 33.9 F / 1.1 C, 30th coldest (and coldest outside Jan. 1 - Feb. 9)
1951-1980: Jan. 8, 30.8 F / -0.7 C. Christmas: 36.2 F / 2.3 C, 50th coldest (only 10th coldest in Dec.; there were 49 days from Dec. 15 - Feb. 17 that were colder, including every day between Jan. 1 - Feb 4 excluding Jan. 25-26)
That 1981-2010 average includes the day I was born (as did 1971-2000 and will 1991-2020), which did its part with a high of 35 F / 2 C, a low of 21 F / -6 C (resulting in a mean of 28 F / -2 C) and 3.5 inches of snow.
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