As 2022 comes to a close, let’s look back at the roller coaster of weather we all lived through. 

We started January 1, 2022 with a record breaking high. Including January 1st, there were 20 days that broke record high temperatures. There were 9 days that broke the record for highest minimum temperature, or the warmest morning low. 

There were 5 days this year that broke a record for cold, 4 days broke the record for the lowest temperature. Just 1 day broke the record for the coldest maximum temperature, or the coldest afternoon high. 

When it comes to rain, 2022 trended below normal. East Baton Rouge Parish spent 45 weeks under drought conditions. (You can find out more about your specific Parish here.) Despite that, there were 2 days in the year that broke records for highest amount of rainfall. 

Keep scrolling for the specifics on heat, cold, and rain records and honorable mentions in 2022. (All records are from KBTR, the Baton Rouge Metro Airport.)

HEAT

The hottest days of the year were not all record breakers. Baton Rouge managed to avoid triple digit temperatures, but we hit 99° three days in a row on June 23rd, 24th, & 25th. The 23rd now holds a record, but the 24th and 25th have hotter records from 2009 and 2012 respectively. 

Baton Rouge typically has about 90 days with temperatures in the 90s. This year there were 106 days with temperatures maxing out from 90-99° and 27 of those days were in June. That makes June 2022 the hottest June on record, tied with 2011 & 1990. The average temperature for the month was 83.9°. Overall, there were 6 high temperature record breaks in the month of June. 

July was the hottest month of 2022 with an average temperature of 84.0°. That ranks as the 8th hottest July for Baton Rouge. None of the days had record high temperatures, but it was hot. High temperatures for the month hit the 90s 28 out of 31 times. Those other three days were just shy of the 90° mark at 88°or 89°. The low temperatures were the record breakers. For the entire month of July, temperatures never dropped below 71°. The warmest night of the year was on July 20th with a low of 80°, breaking the record for warmest minimum temperature. July 19th and 21st also had record high minimum temperatures. 

There were also two record breaks in May that helped to make May 2022 the 5th hottest May on record with an average temperature of 78.1°. May typically has an average temperature of 74.9°.

COLD

The coldest month of the year was January, as it is most years. Baton Rouge reached freezing 22 times. The coldest temperatures of the year happened on January 23rd with a morning low of 19°. December 23rd was the second coldest with a morning low of 20°. 

There were only 4 cold records broken in 2022 and none of them were in December. The most record breaking cold snap was in October with record lows three nights in a row, the 18th, 19th, and 20th. November 19th we broke a record for the coldest afternoon high at 49°. 

RAIN

Coming off of 2021, the third wettest year on record, we expected this year to feel dry. It more than exceeded expectations. There were 180 days with not even a trace of recorded rain. That’s not surprising considering EBR was under drought conditions for 45 out of the 52 weeks. A massive dry out compared to 2021 where EBR was under drought conditions for only 4 weeks. (You can find out more about your specific Parish here.)

Both September and October had less than one inch of rain for the entire month with 0.86” and 0.38” respectively. Those months typically accumulate about 4” of rain. 

The rainiest month of the year was August with 10.29” of rain. That is nearly double the August average of 5.92”, making August 2022 the 10th wettest on record. There were two rainy days that did break records, July 22nd and November 24th. November 24th was the wettest day of the year with over 4” of rain. 

As of December 28th the rainfall total for the year is 54.37”. After the rain on Friday we will likely be coming in right around the average of 59.18”. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Storm Station Meteorologists at weather@wbrz.com.