It’s Official: Sochi Was the Warmest Winter Olympics Ever

In what was painfully obvious to each and every viewer, the just-completed celebration of snow sports in the southern Russia resort city of Sochi was the warmest Winter Olympics ever.

The Olympics were plagued by spring-like weather: Skiers landed in puddles at the bottom of their runs, snow was trucked in from more northern mountains, and tourists were caught sunbathing between events.

A comprehensive analysis by American meteorologist Matt Lanza, updated on Monday, showed Sochi was head-and-shoulders the warmest Winter Olympics since at least 1950, as far back as reliable weather records go.

Now, to be fair, Sochi had a head start. It has the warmest average climate of any winter Olympics venue in history. But it was even warmer than normal this month in southern Russia: The highest temperature recorded during the games was a whopping 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Six days were in the 60s. Here are the historical and actual temperatures for U.S. cities with a similar climate as Sochi, plus the averages.

	Historical High/Lows	January 2014 High/Lows	January 2014 Average Temperature
Sochi	52/39	68/33	51
Atlanta	57/38	76/28	48
Charlotte	55/33	77/21	46
Memphis	55/36	74/19	42
Oklahoma City	55/33	75/9	38
Washington, D.C.	47/31	69/19	39

As it turned out, not one moment of the Sochi Olympics was below freezing, as measured in Adler, Russia, 17 miles away (and at the same altitude). That’s never happened before.

From Lanza’s post:

So have the Winter Olympics warmed? I suppose that depends on what definition you want to use. In the sense that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded the last three consecutive games to three of the four climatologically warmest sites in Winter Olympics history, then yes, they’ve warmed, and certainly in recent years, the actual temperatures have warmed too. Should this be a surprise? Maybe, maybe not. The anomalies relative to normal haven’t been terribly impressive in recent years, but if the Sochi forecast verifies that will change a bit.

Turns out, we’d probably have done better if the Olympics had been in Atlanta.