The average daily mean temperature for the year 2019, at the official weather stations for both Fargo and Grand Forks, were the coldest since 1996.
The weather in our region was particularly cold from February through May and again through October and November. Relative to the entire period of record back into the early 1880s, last year was not particularly cold. However, in the context of our warming climate, it seemed very cold because the weather has been generally much warmer in recent decades than in decades past.
The average temperature for the year all around the entire Earth, however, was the second warmest on the instrument record (since 1880). Only 2016 was warmer. That our weather has been the proverbial "island unto itself" is a perfect example of how variable weather can be, even against a backdrop of a warming climate.
