2023 will be a warm Christmas for Bloomington, but probably not the warmest ever

Area Christmas Eve temperatures hit 63 F degrees.

The warm lead-in to Christmas Day might make some Bloomington residents wonder: Will Christmas Day in 2023 be the warmest one on record?

The answer is: Probably not. But it will be one of the warmest.

The National Weather Service forecast for Bloomington’s high temperature on Christmas is 57 F degrees.

That would still fall 8 degrees short of 65 F, which is the record set in 1982.

That’s based on numbers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Regional Climate Center archive for the Indiana University campus station, which go back to 1895.

There are 8 years with missing data for that better-than-a-century stretch. So there might have been some Christmas Days when it was warmer for that period.

But based on the NOAA data for the general Indianapolis area, which is complete, 65 degrees is probably close enough for casual conversation.

If the Bloomington temperature hits 57 F degrees on Dec. 25, 2023, that will make it tied for 9th warmest on record.

And it would put three of the last five years in the top 10 warmest Christmas Days on record. In 2021, Bloomington hit 63 F degrees (2nd warmest) and in 2019 Bloomington hit 61 F degrees (6th warmest).

This time last year, the question was not about the warmest Christmas on record for Bloomington, but rather the coldest.

The 0 F degrees measured in 2022 made for Bloomington’s 8th coldest Christmas Day on record.

[This piece will be updated with the high temperature recorded for Bloomington on Dec. 25, 2023.

[Updated at 9:17 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2023. It looks like the high temperature recorded at the Monroe County airport will turn out to be 56 F.]

For readers who are looking to track the temperature through the day, but don’t have their own weather station, they can monitor the online mercury reading recorded each hour at the Monroe County airport and reported to the National Weather Service.