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We have over 800 cities in this dataset, all the US cities with populations of 50,000 or more. It'll be interesting to see which are the coldest in winter (we used January to measure winter cold temps), which are the warmest in summer (July was used as a proxy for general summer temperatures), and which have the biggest swings from winter to summer.
We'll start with the coldest cities:
Interestingly, Alaska, the state often considered the coldest, doesn't take the top position. Anchorage is actually only the 28th coldest city in this list, with a mean January temperature of 13F, compared to Grand Forks' much colder 0F.
Which big cities are the coldest? Let's set a minimum population of 200,000 and rerun our calculations.
Now let's see which cities are the warmest in summer:
It is perhaps a bit surprising that three of the top five are in California rather than Arizona, but not when you remember that Death Valley holds the record for hottest temperature in the world—California's famous mild temperatures only apply to the coastal part of the state.
Here are the warmest large cities (population 200,000+):
What about temperature swings between winter and summer?
This list is very similar to the list of coldest cities, because in addition to frigid winters, North Dakota and Minnesota also have warm summers: from an average low of 0F in January to an average high in the low 80s (F) in July!
Here are the large cities (200,000+ people) with the biggest temperature swings:
All of these have roughly similar patterns, with summer highs in the mid-80s and winter lows between 10 and 20.
Temperature is just one factor in where to move. To get quick, personalized recommendations for what city to live in based on a comprehensive list of factors, take our quiz!