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The average daily temperature at Bradley International Airport for January through April this year was about 38 degrees — nearly 2 degrees cooler than the same stretch last year and 3 degrees cooler than the start of 2023.

But that first third of 2025 was still much warmer than the average in the mid-1900s in central Connecticut, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

For example, from 1949 through 1987, the average January-April daily temperature was about 34.5 degrees. From 1987 through 2025, it was 2 degrees warmer, at 36.5 degrees, and since 2010, it’s been about 37.2 degrees — a stretch that included the brutal winter of 2015.

The winters and early springs of 2002, 2012, 2023 and 2024 each featured average temperatures above 40 degrees for the January-April period — temperatures not seen at any other point in the last 75 years.

While summers have been getting warmer overall since 1949, the increase hasn’t been as sharp as the change in the winters of the year. The average May-August temperature from 1949 through 1987, for example, was about 68 degrees, compared to 1987 through 2025, which was about 69.1 degrees.

The May-August period last year, though, was the warmest ever recorded at Bradley International Airport.

As CT Mirror's Managing Editor Stephen helps manage and support a staff of 16 reporters.  His career in daily journalism includes 20 years at The Hartford Courant, where he served as a member of the editorial board, data editor, breaking news editor and bureau chief.  Prior to that Stephen was city editor at the Casper Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyo., and the editor of the Daily Press in Craig, Colo.  He has won many awards for editorial writing, data journalism and breaking news. While he was breaking news editor, The Courant was a named finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for its coverage of the Sandy Hook shootings.  Busemeyer is a Koeppel Journalism Fellow at Wesleyan University, where he teaches data journalism, and he has also taught at the University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut and the University of Colorado.