Meanwhile the world temperature anomaly as measured by satellite is near zero – Anthony
NOAA: U.S. Temperature and Precipitation Near-Average for June
July 10, 2009
The June 2009 temperature and precipitation for the contiguous United States were near the long-term average, based on records going back to 1895, according to an analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
The average June 2009 temperature of 69.5 degrees F was 0.2 degree F above the 20th Century average. Precipitation across the contiguous United States in June 2009 averaged 2.90 inches, which is 0.01 inch above the long-term value.
U.S. Temperature Highlights
- Above-normal temperatures prevailed in the South, Southeast, and parts of the Northwest, while below-average temperatures were recorded in the Northeast and areas in the Southwest and North Central regions.
- Florida experienced its fourth-warmest June on record. On the cooler side were Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which experienced their ninth- and tenth-coolest June, respectively.
U.S. Precipitation Highlights
- Precipitation was below normal in the southern and northern tier states, but above-normal in the Northeast, West, and parts of the Southwest and West North Central regions.
- Moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 13 percent of the contiguous United States, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Drought conditions slightly worsened in the Mississippi Valley, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Drought improvements were seen in the southeastern Rockies and southern High Plains, but remained unchanged in the West.
Other Highlights
- Throughout the High Plains states, flooding and hail affected crops. In Nebraska, preliminary estimates indicate over 150,000 acres of crops were damaged by severe weather, with losses exceeding $10 million.
- There were 6,864 wildfires across the nation in June — the fewest number of fires for the month over the past 10 years. The 525,937 acres burned during June was 435,409 acres below the 2000-2009 average. The 1,903,247 acres burned since January was near the 2000-2009 average of 1,927,474 acres.
NCDC’s preliminary reports, which assess the current state of the climate, are released soon after the end of each month. These analyses are based on preliminary data, which are subject to revision. Additional quality control is applied to the data when late reports are received several weeks after the end of the month and as increased scientific methods improve NCDC’s processing algorithms.
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.
“NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.”
Wow….they have a pretty high opinion of themselves.
Average? Just average? I thought this was the year without a summer…
While temps have been in the 100’s in TX, I can see the cooler temps elsewhere would make this June par for the course for the US.
Don’t really know what they are talking about with the drought in the Carolinas. June was dryer than usual, but we are FAR from drought conditions. Every lake/stream/reserviour in my area has 100% recovered from the 2007 drought. This past week we dug some fence post holes and you only need to go down ~1 foot to get to moist soil. This spring was, by far, the wettest spring I’ve seen in my area (Charlotte, NC) since I moved here 7 years ago.
Drought? What drought? What are they talking about?
Regarding the temp map:
Wouldn’t it make more sense to shift the colors to the right and have the greens from -2 to +2? Greens indicate average temperatures to me, but that map seems to suggest that most people think of green as a cool color. Maybe it’s just me.
I don’t know about USA but Southern Europe has been cooler than usual.
We even had rain clouds in July…
The statement was:
—————
“The average June 2009 temperature of 69.5 degrees F was 0.2 degree F above the 20th Century average. Precipitation across the contiguous United States in June 2009 averaged 2.90 inches, which is 0.01 inch above the long-term value.”
—————
.
You’ll please pardon me, but …
.
I don’t see how THAT statement is even possible.
.
Here —in the state of Washington— we’ve experience one of the ~cooler~ beginnings of ‘summer’ than experienced in a quite some time.
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Just =WHO= is writing those reports?
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As I type this, it’s 57º F outside, and that’s in Mukilteo/South Everett.
.
Yeah, imagine that: July 13, and 57º freaking degrees, NOT that I’m complaining as I like the cooler temps, being a Highlander an all …
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BUT PLEASE DO gimme a break with the hype!
.
Jeez!
Do people have any faith in such ‘official’ reports?
Putting this together with the Real Climate latest post ( warming interrupted) the whole ( co2 ) theory is falling apart rapidly. Trying to make excuses for the recent plateau and subsequent falling temperatures is going to make for some really interesting papers and/or backtracking in the very near future.
Could somebody link me to a chart showing temperature averages for every month in 2009 along with variance from historic average? I’m interested to know if this year is turning out to be another cool year…
I don’t know what they are talking about here in South Carolina. I get the Water Resources Report in my professional position and we do not have drought conditions. In fact due to increased rain compared to drough conditions, headwaters located in NC,SC, and Tenn, were near normal with rain in JUly already leading to flood warnings on major rivers such as the Savanah, Broad and Wateree which means Catawba, Congaree, and Santee Cooper systems. Lynches River and Little Pee Dee were still below normal, but almost all the other “black” river systems were at Normal (Waccamaw, Edisto and Great Pee Dee).
The June weather for Columbia to Hilton Head had one week of higher than average, one week of much higher, and two weeks of lower to much lower. However, this depends on which 30 basis is used. The one currently used IIRC includes the “worrying about global cooling” decade, but not the “warmest year, decade, etc in the millenium” decade. So, having it just above normal for them is probably correct. I can tell you we have not had such cool weather since those “global cooling” times. Our AC bill indicates as such, as does energy use in processes that love heat (more expensive this June).
Years without a summer is what they call normal, and it is what they believe the earth ought to return to.
Well I say no thanks.
Warming please come back!
I see that NOAA started to use whole 20th century as a baseline, starting at 1895, e.g. into the Little ice Age..
NOAA,
Yeah right, like they can calculate an average temperature.
I’d hate to see a cool June.
Ask the New Zealanders or South Americans about the current weather. Cold anomalies sprouting all over. What global warming are we on about then?
“Average” here is so meaningless, when it has clearly been well above average in some parts of the country, and well below average in other parts. I also do not put much stock in data for a single month, except when it is presented in a time series format where I can see how it relates to the recent past, and longer back in time.
Here, from the same basic source as Anthony’s, is a map showing how temps have fared over the past 12 months:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2009/jun/07_06_2009_DvTempRank_pg.gif
So June isn’t a fluke in having lots of colder than average locations. Warmer than average, for the last year, has been pretty much limited to the Southwest. Which is pretty much to be expected — a warm and dry Southwest — from a La Nina.
What I’d like to see discussed is how all this cool weather in the US is related to the recent La Nina. From this map
http://www.beloblog.com/KVUE_Blogs/weatherblog/La_Nina_regional_impacts.gif
it looks to me like the cooler weather penetrated much further south and east than in a normal La Nina. So, does that just mean that the recent La Nina was a bit abnormal in this respect, or has something else been driving the recent below normal temperatures reflected on the first map I linked to?
James (08:19:11) :
they can’t move the green as that would eliminate the reds from the map. we can’t have the great unwashed thinking that our scaremongering is just that now can we?
NOAA genda here.
http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2169
Austin,
They have it on the same site.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2009/may/global.html#temp
Is the latest. It looks like it’s hotter, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere.
We’ve finally had some sunshine here in eastern Massachusetts (practically none in June!), but it’s almost mid-July, and the temps stubbornly refuse to climb out of the 70s, and the nights are positively cold. I’m still waiting for summer.
The grass is doing well, though. Good thing we never built the swimming pool.
/Mr Lynn
Interesting that NOAA has to admit “something” about the cold weather these past few years, so – as noted above – they try to compare 2009’s “cooler” weather against the entire past century! Then only can come with a weaselly “Today’s temperatures are average” announcement.
This is on line with their constant “xxth warmest ever” press releases.
But saying (confirming) that actual global temperatures have actually increased by “nothing point nothing” ever since Al Gore declared the imminent crisis of global warming?
Actually saying that worldwide temepratures are likely to keep cooling off through the next twenty years as part of an AMO cycle? Nah.
I see that NOAA started to use whole 20th century as a baseline, starting at 1895, e.g. into the Little ice Age..
1894 is when the US. Weather Bureau started with official stations spread across the country.
A lot of records went missing, unfortunately. Before that, there were a lot of ‘volunteer’ observers who kept records, and where they went, nobody knows.
Much like the historical sunspot observations, a lot of very dedicated people took readings daily. If all the data were gathered up, the picture would be quite different.
Things ought to get rather interesting with the onset of El Nino. Will we see an El Nino event similar the ones between 2001 and 2007 (elevated MEI numbers through most of those years)? Will the event mirror the May 2006 to Jan 2007 event (short and weak), or will it be more robust? Will this El Nino cause elevated global temps, or will it be more benign? El Ninos don’t always produce the climate anomalies. The Winters of 1976-1977 and 1977-1978 were some of the coldest and snowiest for North America, and they followed the moderate to strong El Nino of 1975-1976 (The year of the Great Pacific Climate Shift). However, those 2 summers were scorchers for North America.
Should be very interesting.
Where’s the global warming?
It makes no sense to me. I live in central Maryland and it has been very cool, I have not used my A/C in a month. But the cartoon shows yellow with is 0-+2. I don’t see how that can be.
U.S. Temperature and Precipitation Near-Average for Jun (Baltimore Sun)
June 2009 had the fewest 90+ days (zero) since 1979. That’s only happened six times since they began keeping official records for the city – in 1886, 1903, 1916, 1972, 1979 and 2009. The average number of 90+ degree days in June in Baltimore is 5.7. Last year we had nine. The record is 18, in 1943.
If one uses the average going back to 1895 and this past June was only fractionally above it then one should bear in mind that the whole of the 20th Century was a warming phase with a short pause in the middle.
What that report is really saying is that the June temperatures represent the complete reversal of ALL the late 20th century warming and a return to temperatures that were normal before WW2.
Of course they can’t put it quite like that so they manipulate the base line and give a false impression that the warming of the late 20th Century is still significant.
So why is NYC light green??? Eighth coldest on record -3.7 degrees…
Here’s the “official” release I saw for NYC:
…UNUSUALLY WET AND COOL JUNE FOR CENTRAL PARK…
DUE TO THE UNUSUALLY COOL AND WET CONDITIONS IN JUNE…HERE ARE SOME INTERESTING FACTS TO NOTE:
THIS JUNE IS TIED FOR THE 8TH COOLEST ON RECORD. THE AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE WAS 67.5…3.7 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL…WHICH ALSO
OCCURRED IN 1897.
I’m telling you, this map data is completely FALSE. Once someone starts looking into how this map was made, I guarantee it’s all been twisted:
– “Adjusted” up where green and left unadjusted where yellow/brown.
– Or, I bet they painted NYC dark green (-4), but everything nearby light green (-2) by some screwy interpolation that only Bernie Madoff could understand.
In So CT we had the heat on mornings! More than a decade living here and there hasn’t been anything remotely this cold. We go for walks at night with jackets on. Was like April not June.
Go to it guys.
Juraj V. (08:41:11) :
I see that NOAA started to use whole 20th century as a baseline, starting at 1895, e.g. into the Little ice Age..
Be careful here. The data go back to 1895, but I don’t think that’s the “baseline.” I think in the image Anthony posted, “Normal” is the current standard NOAA normal climatology, i.e. 1971-2000. Now, when they talk about “x warmest June” (or whatever), that’s relative to the entire historical record, not the “baseline” for defining “Normal” seen in NOAA maps.
They should move the starting point to the lowest point of the Little Ice Age and they’ll get the above average temperatures they seek.
Perhaps in the next major revision of climate data they’ll erase the plateau after 1998 replacing it with a up-trend because they say it’s based on faulty data 😛
Robert A Cook PE (09:31:30) :
Interesting that NOAA has to admit “something” about the cold weather these past few years, so – as noted above – they try to compare 2009’s “cooler” weather against the entire past century! Then only can come with a weaselly “Today’s temperatures are average” announcement. Along the lines of my preceding comment, I think “average” is relative to the 1971-2000 NOAA climate “normals,” not the entire period of historical record. The latter is just used in reference to the “x warmest month” malarkey.
And I call it malarkey because if June is the “49th warmest June” since 1895, then it is below the median month, and they should be speaking of the “xth coolest month. They are just showing their bias to describe a cooler than average June (out of the entire record) as the “xth warmest” June.
More June 2009 NYC “Light Green” evidence:
BELOW AVERAGE TEMPERATURES OCCURRED ON 23 OUT OF 30 DAYS THIS
JUNE…OR 75 PERCENT OF THE MONTH.
CENTRAL PARK HAS NOT HIT 90 DEGREES IN THE MONTH OF JUNE THIS YEAR. THE LAST TIME THIS OCCURRED WAS BACK IN 1996.
CENTRAL PARK HAS NOT HIT 85 DEGREES IN THE MONTH OF JUNE THIS YEAR. THE LAST TIME THIS OCCURRED WAS BACK IN 1916. THIS HAS ONLY OCCURRED 2 OTHER TIMES…1903 AND 1886.
THE LAST TIME THAT CENTRAL PARK HIT 90 OR GREATER THIS YEAR WAS IN
APRIL. THE LAST TIME THAT CENTRAL PARK HIT 90 IN APRIL…BUT NOT IN
JUNE WAS BACK IN 1990.
THE LAST TIME THAT CENTRAL PARK HIT 85 OR GREATER THIS YEAR WAS IN
MAY. THE LAST TIME THAT CENTRAL PARK HIT 85 IN MAY…BUT NOT IN JUNE
WAS BACK IN 1903. THE LAST TIME THAT CENTRAL PARK HIT 85 IN APRIL…BUT NOT IN JUNE WAS ALSO BACK IN 1903.
THE LOWEST TEMPERATURE REACHED IN CENTRAL PARK IN THE MONTH OF JUNE WAS 50 DEGREES. THE LAST TIME THIS OCCURRED WAS BACK IN 2003.
THE LOW TEMPERATURE DIPPED BELOW 60 DEGREES 11 TIMES IN THE MONTH OF JUNE. THE LAST TIME THIS OCCURRED WAS IN 2003 WHEN IT OCCURRED 17 TIMES.
The Pacific Northwest was cold in the region I live in. In June we had low temps in the 30’s and one day with a high in the 50’s. The hot weather garden is a joke, and the cold weather garden is still producing.
The june heat map is a creation of a model, and is not based on localized weather patterns. We have crop failures due to lack of heat, and they are saying our region was warmer then normal.
I hope someone finds the string to unravel this enigma.
Tyler,
It could snow in June and the NOAA would tell you that it’s about normal or evena little warm . It’s become a political propoganda outlet for Al Gore and Jim Hansen, and nothing more.
Saturday 11th July in Selsey, West Sussex, a place known for its clement climate: the family and I gave up pretending that it was summer and turned on the central heating in the house. It was cold!
Monday 13th July … the day was brilliant; clear skies, brilliant sunshine. But I still had to wear a sweater outside. There might be sunshine but there’s no ‘heat’ in it. The growth of the crops in my veggie patch bear this out. I’m getting miserable returns for my efforts this year.
So my amateur eyes are looking at the map and wondering how instrument reliability fits in to all this. One of the big complaints about weather stations in the U.S. is that data collection does not take into account how urban and suburban sprawl has effected the equipment over time (I’m thinking of the famous pictures of a rural weather station sitting in the middle of a blacktop parking lot and another near the exhaust flue of an industrial air conditioner).
Am I wrong in thinking there is ample evidence there is a systematic problem of overstatng the temperatures such that a modern “average year” is probably cooler than an historical average year?
This cannot be. We’ve had runaway global warming since at least 1988 (when we were first warned about it) and are nearing the tipping point. Instead of your lying eyes, you need to trust the peer reviewed scientific literature. These are the gold standard (and only true measure) of truth, along with The Models.
Everything that has happened is exactly what They expected, and the models have foretold.
Also – Rahmstorf know statistics, Schmidt is not afraid to debate, and Hansen is not crazy.
As it is written, so shall it be done.
I was just thinking. Wouldn’t it be better to report comparisons of current temps to averages based on SST oscillations? Examples: Are these temperatures average for a just finished La Nina? Are these temps average for an in-between change from La Nina to El Nino? Are these temps average for an El Nino year? Or do it by climate zone: Are these temps average for zone 7? This would make much mote sense and be much more useful in terms of local and regional planning.
How can NOAA get away with peddling this rubbished based on bullshi(self-snip) data.
I live in the south coast of the UK and I know from my own temperature checks that so far this is the coldest summer since 1966. My tomatoes agree with my numbers and they are at least 3 weeks behind normal – green tomato chutney anyone?
“WUWT understands and predicts changes in NOAA.” How’s that for a slogan, Anthony?
Of course, it is just my luck to live in one of the areas with above normal temperatures. The North Carolina June was the 4th hottest on record, which is a drop from the 2008 June which was the 3rd hottest on record.
However, despite being very hot the humidity has been WAY down. Usually, North Carolina has both the hot hot heat and high high humidity. Not this year. The heat actually feels nice. It isn’t dry like Arizona but just right. Some days are an exception, of course.
One thing I have noticed is that some trees are losing leaves already. It has been dry, so that may be it. But I am keeping my eye on it just in case it is a precursor of things to come.
Is this the same NOAA that has overestimated the daily highs here in Omaha by about 6 degrees nearly everyday for the last few weeks. Ironicly it is almost always because of the same reason. The clouds stuck it out for much more of the day than they figured on. I seem to remember a few discussions about increaed cosmic doodads helping out the clouds a bit and how the modelers because of climate denial don’t seem to want to include anything about that in the models beacause that would just be wrong. Ohh well, I have my long johns already to go. I wonder when the first freeze and snow will be, probably by the end of October.
One of the things that has bothered me about the SC data especially is the minimum temperature seen in June. Normally, meaning the past 40 years. I have had to run air conditioning at night starting the first week in June. Have to run it during the day usually starting in May on the hot days. This June there were nights when we could cut off the AC because it got cool. Remember, years ago, when AGW was first being questioned and max temperatures were NOT setting records, the reason given was the minimums were where the increase in anomolies were. Here in SC, not only were the minimums records at the start of the month, but mild nights continued through the month. The days were hot in the last week but temperatures fell quickly for the Deep South. It makes one wonder if the weighting function has been changed or automatically chooses the hot trend as prevalent (i.e. not a true average).
Tenuc (13:12:12)
Same here in Wiltshire. Incidentally, if you’ve got any of that green tomato chutney going spare …
I notice that Key West seems to be shaded green.
This is a better graph from NOAA!! 😉
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2009/jun/04-06Nationaltrank_pg.gif
Tenuc (13:12:12) : It’s obvious that your tomatoes are in the pay of ExxonMobil. Your tomatoes calling themselves green simply means thet are working undercover.
I notice North Carolina is reported as being warmer by a couple of degrees. My daily log shows it has been COOLER. However upon looking at the data the next day the temperatures for the low and the high of the day before have been adjusted UP by 2 to 5F.
Anyone else see this happening?
I don’t need a government agency to tell me my weather (or climate for that matter) – the peppers and tomatoes in my north eastern Orange County, NY garden tell me all I need to know – whether the map says we’re “yellow” or not, they just are not growing right…
Ah yes, the sun’s activity at a record low, and all we get is ‘average’ temperatures. Shouldn’t temperatures globally be plummeting after a couple years of solar inactivity, rather than just levelling off?
REPLY: The oceans don’t cool off in a year, or even two. Massive heat sink there. It takes time, the oceans are the key. – Anthony
Tyler : “So why is NYC light green??? Eighth coldest on record -3.7 degrees…”
I was thinking the same thing.
“CENTRAL PARK HAS NOT HIT 85 DEGREES IN THE MONTH OF JUNE THIS YEAR. THE LAST TIME THIS OCCURRED WAS BACK IN 1916. THIS HAS ONLY OCCURRED 2 OTHER TIMES…1903 AND 1886.”
It has yet to hit 85 degrees in NYC and its already mid July. Looking at the 10 day forecast, they are predicting 87 for Thursday but then back into the low 80s and upper 70s. If we don’t hit 85 on Thursday, we are looking at both June and July with no 85 degree days.
But the NOAA maps says we are only slightly below normal, so just ignore your thermometer.
PS As somebody red-green color-blind, these maps are terrible. Why not just use red for hot and blue for cold in various shades with white being neutral and dump the yellows and green?
How can central Arizona be in the -2 to 0 degree F range? We experianced the coolest June that anyone around here can recall. We were below 100 degrees F for a near record 13 days or so (the record from 1913 was missed by one day), while the normal high was typically 106/7 degrees F. I’m not sure we ever hit the normal high for the entire month. I know the lows were only slightly below normal, but that is typical due to the Urban Heat Island effect in the Phoenix area. I recall the satelite data showing a much cooler anomoly for Arizona. Is the difference from adjustment? If so, its absolute poppycock.
Pamela Gray (13:05:05) :
I was just thinking.
Don’t you wish NOAA would, too? 😉
P.S.
I think your musings are on target, but I don’t know how hard it would be to come up with those kinds of more meaningful comparisons.
ginckgo (16:46:22) :
Ah yes, the sun’s activity at a record low, and all we get is ‘average’ temperatures. Shouldn’t temperatures globally be plummeting after a couple years of solar inactivity, rather than just levelling off?
REPLY: The oceans don’t cool off in a year, or even two. Massive heat sink there. It takes time, the oceans are the key. – Anthony
And it is probably just about to the point where it is worked off. That is the big reason that the shorter cycles with less downtime between them was able to build the heat level up. Since the oceans act like a stabilizer they need to cool before the rest can start to drop.
“NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.”
———————————-
This cracks me up every time I read it. Time for a new Publicity Manager I think.
how much has to be subtracted from NOAA numbers for their insufficient UHI treatment ?
“Ask the New Zealanders or South Americans about the current weather. ”
This week saw NZ had coldest May ever, today Peru’s death toll since March’s early arrival of winter temps is 4 times average.
For central MN NOAA map is fine, but July will be much cooler. Our ave. high is to be 82 and we’ve reached that only a couple days.
However, it is drier still, this morning’s rain is the first beyond a sprinkle for the month. No thunder and lightning in July?
Paraphrasing Mantua on El Nino: ENSO and PDO must be in phase for a teleconnection to be efficacious. Therefore, PDO and AMO will prevail here.
“The oceans don’t cool off in a year, or even two. Massive heat sink there. It takes time, the oceans are the key.”
Indeed, this summer’s slightly below grade temps portend some cooler weather, er climate, ahead.
July 1983 here was on the order of 15 degrees above average.
Just to weigh in with a report on local conditions here in central Ohio…It was reported on the local news last night that Columbus has recorded only ten days at or above 85 degrees this year. We have had one 90-degree day. Overnight temperatures have routinely been in the upper 50s and low 60s. This weather is more reflective of early September than mid-July. These are very unusual temperatures for an area that typically experiences hot, hazy days and humid nights at this time of year. On a personal note, the air conditioning hasn’t run for more than about a week this summer! The weather has been wonderfully comfortable!
I have a real problem with this chart. The temperature anomaly in Boston during June from the Blue Hills observatory was -4.6 degrees F. That earns us at least one more shade down the scale.
Its interesting to notice the little brown spot (warm) in a sea of green (cool) in the SouthWest Corner of Utah.
I checked the 3 month map at NOAA and the little brown spot had grown to a red spot (+4 to +5F) for three months, now that’s an ANOMALY!.
See:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2009/jun/Last3mTDeptUS.png
Now notice the HOT SPOT in the SouthWest corner of Utah. The red circle(+3 to +4F) with a brown (+4 to +5F) center.
What could CAUSE such an anomaly you wonder?
A little googling locates the hot center as St George, UT.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=st+george+utah&ie=UTF8&split=0&gl=us&ei=y5BcSpP8EuTcmQeBsO3dDQ&ll=37.09451,-113.592153&spn=0.004082,0.009624&t=h&z=17
And we find from Weather Underground that the weather station is conveniently located at the ASPHALT (BLACK) paved airport right next to the city.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=84770
Then we look at GISS station data and see that since the 90s its been MUCH
hotter in St George, relative to the 40s, than in the US as a whole.
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=425724870010&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Then we go to the St George City site and look at their demographics and we find:
Washington County is one of the fastest growing areas in Utah and the rest of the country. It currently ranks as the second fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States. It was ranked as the #1 fastest growing area and dubbed “Boomtown USA” in 2007 by Inc. Magazine. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, St. George, Utah was the #1 Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States for population growth from 1990 to 2000.
http://www.stgeorgechamber.com/EcDev/demographic.overview.htm
Who would have guessed that the statistical HOT SPOT for the US in Apr to June of 09 would just happen to be the #1 MSA growth area for the US as well.
What are the chances of that being a coincidence????
To be fair, lets look at a near by station and see if this is just a
coincidence. If it is, then a near by station that isn’t growing like gang
busters should ALSO show this phenomenal heat wave for the last three months:
So back to NOAA, and lo and behold, there is a official climate station very
near St George. Its Cedar City, UT.
But the anomaly for Cedar City the Apr to June timeframe was only +0.5F
http://www.weather.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=slc
(use Monthly Climate data for Cedar City and average the monthly anomaly for Apr, May and June)
So the question is:
Do we really believe it was 4 to 5 degrees F above average for 3 months in St George, but just 60 miles away it was only +0.5F above average?
Well maybe if it suits your agenda.
Arthur