Think your New Year’s was cold? Try a year earlier

CEDAR RAPIDS - The coldest night last year in Cedar Rapids was far below normal and the hottest day was well above normal, a climate report from the National Weather Service shows.

The city welcomed News Year's Day 2018 with a low that dipped to 24 below, or 35 degrees less than the normal 11 degrees for that day.

It rose to a high of 97 on May 27, or 13 degrees over the normal of 84.

Both those, though, fell short of breaking a record. The hottest day on record for the city was 110 degrees on July 5, 1911. The coldest was 29 below on Jan. 15, 2009.

Despite those extremes, the annual average temperature for Cedar Rapids in 2018 was 48.6 degrees, a fraction higher than normal.

Precipitation in the city for the year was 40.65 inches, about 6 inches above normal.

The weather service did not have a 2018 snowfall total for the city; the normal is 26.7 inches.

The weather service said Cedar Rapids had:

' Days with thunderstorms: 64

' Days with hail: 1

' Days with sleet: 2

' Days with fog: 222

' Foggy days with visibility under a quarter mile: 30

' Days with haze: 94

Statewide, 2018 average temperatures were near normal.

Precipitation totals ranged from just above normal at Burlington to 15 inches above normal at Dubuque.

Snowfall totals reached from slightly below normal to 20 inches above normal.