U.S. experiences warmest 12-month period on record
The past twelve months were the warmest twelve months in U.S. history, said NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on Tuesday, in their monthly "State of the Climate" report. Temperatures in the contiguous U.S. during May 2011 - April 2012 broke the previous record for warmest 12-month period, set November 1999 - October 2000, by 0.1°F. The past twelve months have featured America's 2nd warmest summer, 4th warmest winter, and warmest March on record. Twenty-two states were record warm for the 12-month period, and an additional nineteen states were top ten warm. NOAA said that the January - April 2012 period was also the warmest January - April period since record keeping began in 1895. The average temperature of 45.4°F during January - April 2012 was 5.4°F above the 20th century average for the period, and smashed the previous record set in 2006 by an unusually large margin--1.6°F.
Figure 1. The ten warmest 12-month periods in the contiguous U.S. since record keeping began in 1895. Image credit: NOAA/NCDC.
Figure 2. The average temperature of 45.4°F during January - April 2012 was the warmest on record: 5.4°F above the 20th century average for the period, and was 1.6°F above the previous record set in 2006. January - April temperatures have been rising at about 1.9°F per century since 1895. Image credit: NOAA/NCDC.
April 2012: 3rd warmest on record
April 2012 was the third warmest April in the contiguous U.S. since record keeping began in 1895. Ten states had a top-ten warmest April, and no states were cooler than average. But what's really remarkable about April was that eight states--Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia--had average April temperatures cooler than their March temperatures, even though their April temperatures were still above the long-term average for the month. These statistics show just how remarkably warm March 2012 was. Most extreme was Illinois, where April 2012 temperatures ranked in the top 20% for warmest Aprils, yet were cooler than March 2012 temperatures.
Figure 3. Temperature rankings for April 2012 in the Contiguous U.S. Ten states had a top-ten warmest April, and no states were cooler than average. Image credit: NOAA/NCDC.
Figure 4. NOAA's U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI) for January - April shows that 2012 had the most extreme weather on record.
Most extreme January - April on record
NOAA's U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI), an index that tracks the highest 10 percent and lowest 10 percent of extremes in temperature, precipitation, and drought, was 42% during the January-April period, over twice the average value, and the greatest on record. Remarkably, 82% of the contiguous U.S. had maximum temperatures that were in the warmest 10% historically, and 68% had warm minimum temperatures in the top 10%, with records going back to 1910. The previous records were 56% (2000) and 57% (1992) for maximum and minimum temperatures, respectively. The percentage area of the U.S. experiencing top-10% drought conditions during January - April was 19%, which was the 17th greatest since 1910. Extremes in precipitation as computed by the CEI were near average for the January - April period.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Yes I agree it should now, mays have become what junes used to be,
For a graduate to get their doctorate
That's why I've found it odd that the last two 12z runs of the GFS have been seemingly very unreliable and inconsistent compared with the other runs... Yesterday's 12z showed a hurricane hitting south Florida... The track made sense but intensity seemed way over done... And then today's 12z the intensity made sense but the track towards Tampa seemed very unlikely. The 0z tonight will probably tell the real story, whatever that may be.
Oh we remember that one, dont we Andy?,
Dating wasn't difficult in the 1700's. But getting permission from the King was.
They we're a tad overbearing with the Tea and That A& P outfit, I mean, Lafitte never had the problems the Americans had, till, well, New Orleans and that didnt fare to well fer dem downriver in Chalmette,
Crawfish?
The SWPC in Boulder issued a flare alert after an M-class flare in active region 11476. Here is an EVE plot from noon today showing the history of spectral irradiances. We usually look at the blue line in the top panel, the ESP 0.1-7 nm radiometer. It is very similar to the GOES X-ray measurements. The M-class flare is the spike in the blue line just after 0400 UT today. The dark count is a measure of the energetic particles hitting SDO and usually rises around 1800 UT each day because of the Earth's radiation belts.
sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov
Someone's cruising..........
Either track is climatologically favored this time of year.
1305 bappit: Get enough tree rings and you'd know. Live oaks and bald cypress are long-lived trees. Found this article on a study published here if that helps.
1318 DavidHOUTX: Thanks for that information. I was stating it would be difficult to date back to the 1700s.
Don't need long-lived species to create records extending well past short-lived species lifespans, just a continuity of preserved trees that overlapped parts of their lifespans. Dendrochronology
Even preserved lumber can be used as samples for the purpose of such crossdating.
In areas in which trees lived near long-lived streams, rivers, watering holes, ponds, or lakes, one can crosscheck (and also further extend crossdates) by comparing yearly sediment layers against yearly growth in tree rings.
cursing....someone's cursing.....
it's OK...the first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem....
I know the feeling though... when people refer to West Virginia and Virginia as the Virginias... Don't want to be lumped in the same category as them "mountain folk"...
Don't worry Grothar, someone will have the answer. :)
The world will never know...
The SST's are steaming off the western coast of central america
Yep, quit tryin' to split North and South. The Carolinas have been happily married for spans lasting as long as several days at a time in their hundreds of years together.
It's favored by me too... I need the rain.
everything was fine when the Lords Proprietor ruled the Carolinas from Charleston...
you do not, in fact, live in 'the Carolinas'....you live in what is appropriately referred to as "Lesser Carolina"...or "Carolina Lite"
actually....it was called simply "Carolina"
North South Carolina.
exactly
NWS: Tornado touches down in Weimar
A tornado touchdown in Weimar caused injuries, derailed at least one train and damaged a hospital enough to prompt an evacuati
Trop atl
Carib
GOM
When a boy waterspin and a girl waterspin fall in love, they get together and have a little waterspout.
'd be pret' odd if they had a teaspout instead. That's for when two teases get together.
it's mostly just that I'm a Charleston snob...although on a serious not: it's utterly useless in predicting hurricane landfall...like saying "it's gonna hit Florida"...just meaningless....
Wow... That Gulf shear is very unfavorable right now
Oh I get what you're saying, combined it's huge. I get your point.
I've been to Charleston once, what a great place. I'd love to go there again soon.
Could drop back down quickly again once the winds shift.
come on down...look me up
It's gone annular already.
Hey MA. What do you think about the possible storm being predicted by the GFS?
The sad thing is, he discards it without even looking at the atmospheric pattern at the time. If he would look, he would notice that the pattern favors tropical development and that it has occurred in this pattern plenty of times before.
Exactly. I have noticed the tropics love to show a blatant disregard for meteorologists as well.
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