A year with the warmest January on record, the warmest month on record and the warmest summer on record ended up as the four warmest year on record in Duluth.
The average temperature of 42.8 degrees in 2006 ties 1987 and 1877 for the fourth warmest year in the city since records have been kept.
Duluth's warmest year on record was 44.5 degrees set in 1931, followed by 44.3 degrees set in 1878 and 43 degrees set in 1998. Records were officially kept near the harbor until 1941 which likely accounts for warmer readings in those years, Na-tional Weather Service officials noted. It was the warmest December since records have been taken at the airport, for exam-ple, but not even in the top-10 when downtown records are figured in.
