(This post revised to show the final report)
Source: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2012/13
In 2012, the contiguous United States (CONUS) average annual temperature of 55.3°F was 3.3°F above the 20th century average, and was the warmest year in the 1895-2012 period of record for the nation. The 2012 annual temperature was 1.0°F warmer than the previous record warm year of 1998. Since 1895, the CONUS has observed a long-term temperature increase of about 0.13°F per decade. Precipitation averaged across the CONUS in 2012 was 26.57 inches, which is 2.57 inches below the 20th century average. Precipitation totals in 2012 ranked as the 15th driest year on record. Over the 118-year period of record, precipitation across the CONUS has increased at a rate of about 0.16 inch per decade.
On a statewide and seasonal level, 2012 was a year of both temperature and precipitation extremes for the United States. Each state in the CONUS had annual temperatures which were above average. Nineteen states, stretching from Utah to Massachusetts, had annual temperatures which were record warm. An additional 26 states had one of their 10 warmest years. Only Georgia (11th warmest year), Oregon (12th warmest), and Washington (30th warmest) had annual temperatures that were not among the ten warmest in their respective period of records. A list of the annual temperatures for each of the lower-48 states is available here. Numerous cities and towns were also record warm during 2012 and a select list of those locations is available here. Each state in the CONUS, except Washington, had at least one location experience its warmest year on record. One notable warmest year record occurred in Central Park, in New York City, which has a period of record dating back 136 years.
Much of the CONUS was drier than average for the year. Below-average precipitation totals stretched from the Intermountain West, through the Great Plains, into the Midwest and Southeast. Nebraska and Wyoming were both record dry in 2012. Nebraska’s annual precipitation total of 13.04 inches was 9.78 inches below average, and Wyoming’s annual precipitation total of 8.08 inches was 5.09 inches below average. New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Georgia, and Delaware had a top ten dry year. The large area of dry conditions in 2012 resulted in a very large footprint of drought conditions, which peaked in July with about 61 percent of the CONUS in moderate-to-exceptional drought, according to the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). The footprint of drought during 2012 roughly equaled the drought of the 1950s which peaked at approximately 60 percent. Wetter-than-average conditions were present for the Northwest, where Washington had its fifth wettest year on record. Washington’s statewide precipitation total of 47.24 inches was 10.40 inches above average. Wetter-than-average conditions were also present across parts of the Gulf Coast and Northeast.
Seasonal highlights in 2012 include the fourth warmest winter (December 2011-February 2012), with warmer-than-average conditions across a large portion of the country. The largest temperature departures from average were across the Northern Plains, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast. Winter was drier than average for the East and West coasts, while the Southern Plains were wetter than average improving drought conditions across New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The warmer and drier than average conditions resulted in the third smallest winter snow cover extent on record for the contiguous United States. Spring (March-May) was record warm for the country, with 34 states being record warm for the period. The season consisted of the warmest March, fourth warmest April, and second warmest May on record. Spring precipitation was near-average for the lower-48, with the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest being wetter than average, while the Central Rockies and Ohio Valley were drier than average. The summer (June-August) continued the warmer-than-average trend for the contiguous U.S. with national temperatures ranking as the second warmest on record. The summer average temperature for 2012 was very close to the warmest summer (2011) and the third warmest summer (1936), with only 0.1°F separating the three. The summer season consisted of the eighth warmest June, record warmest July, and 13th warmest August. Drier-than-average conditions were anchored in the central U.S. with record breaking wildfires and a drought footprint comparable to the drought episodes of the 1950s causing large-scale agriculture problems in the Midwest, Plains, and Mountain West. Autumn (September-November) temperatures were closer to average compared to the preceding three seasons, but still ranked as the 22nd warmest autumn on record. Warmer-than-average conditions were present for the West, while cooler-than-average conditions were present for the Eastern Seaboard. Precipitation totals for the nation averaged as the 22nd driest autumn on record.
This annual report places the temperature and precipitation averages into historical perspective, while summarizing the notable events that occurred in 2012. More detailed analysis on individual months can be found through the Climate Monitoring home page.
Top Ten U.S. Weather/Climate Events for 2012
| Rank | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | Hurricane/Post-Tropical Storm Sandy |
| 2 | Contiguous U.S. Drought |
| 3 | Contiguous U.S. Warmest Year on Record |
| 4 | Record Wildfire Activity |
| 5 | Multi-State Derecho |
| 6 | March 2nd-3rd Severe Weather Outbreak |
| 7 | Alaska Cold Winter/Snow Records |
| 8 | Near-Record Low Great Lakes Levels |
| 9 | Contiguous U.S. Snow Cover |
| 10 | Hurricane Isaac |
The National report is here, they did in fact mention the national value for CONUS Tavg despite my earlier speculation from a preliminary email report
Climate Highlights — December
- The average contiguous U.S. temperature for December was 36.4°F, 3.4°F above the 20th century long-term average, and the 10th warmest December on record.
- Warmer-than-average conditions were present for much of the U.S. east of the Rockies. Twenty states had monthly temperatures that ranked among the ten warmest on record. Near-average conditions were present for the Northern Plains and much of the West. The Pacific Northwest was slightly warmer than average.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2012/12
OF NOTE, they have added this disclaimer:
PLEASE NOTE: All of the temperature and precipitation ranks and values are based on preliminary data. The ranks will change when the final data are processed, but will not be replaced on these pages. Graphics based on final data are provided on the Temperature and Precipitation Maps page and the Climate at a Glance page as they become available.
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I get a ‘404’ error message for the hyperlink but this link works:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/
The note at the bottom on the report (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2012/12) states:
PLEASE NOTE: All of the temperature and precipitation ranks and values are based on preliminary data. The ranks will change when the final data are processed, but will not be replaced on these pages. Graphics based on final data are provided on the Temperature and Precipitation Maps page and the Climate at a Glance page as they become available.
——————————————————————————–
I wonder what ranking Alaska’s year was. NOAA talks about all of the warm rankings, but not about the cold ranking. That does look interesting.
And of course, no mention of the Crn.
Economists update their early estimates of GDP growth (or shrinkage) once or twice, and it even gets covered in the financial media. NOAA could do the same. Not a big deal – I just use UAH data which has no mail-in B91 forms, and pretty soon we’ll be able to use USCRN data, thanks to Anthony and his elves. In either case, we’ll have the final numbers early, and sting NOAA every month.
I’m just cherry picking here, but if January in Alaska was14 degrees below normal and every other season was below normal, this is saying that Alaska was only about 1.2 degrees below average for the other 11 months to come up with that overall figure. Somehow, I find this “report” to likely be a little short on honesty and a little long of male bovine droppings.
December’s number IS in the database there, they just aren’t displaying it for whatever reason:
December 2012: 36.39F Rank 109
Go here:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/na.html
Select “December” as the period and :”Submit”.
December trend since 1990: 0.01 degF / Decade (select 1990 as start year to see that trend).
I don’t know. I read things like “3rd” and “15th” and “since 1988”. How is anything like that “historic”?
Weren’t the same people constantly reminding us a couple years ago, when the US was cold, that it was an insignificant fraction of the earth’s surface?
Posted at Drudge Report…
“FEDS: 2012 warmest year ever for US, second most ‘extreme’…”
All weather events seem worse than in the past because more people are affected. If no one is there is there a severe weather event?
Drought of the 1930s and 1950s – any in the 1970s or 1990s? Now drought in 2012! Seems like weather cycles to me. In Australia we have a federal water plan but, one thing about drought – no one can make it rain. I love people talking about managing our water and ‘giving it to the environment’ when it has stopped raining.
Why has wildfire reporting suddenly become a part of weather/climate data reporting? Sure, it’s affected by drought and wind, but the drought conditions are already reported separately and there’s not a few significant factors that affect the data that are way outside NOAA’s responsibilities – pine beetle infestation, logging etc. When did wildfire reporting for NOAA start?
Joe Sumrall,
I don’t have a Facebook account, so I can’t post a response showing that NOAA juggles the books. The 1930’s were the warmest ever U.S. temps.
Maybe some folks with Facebook accounts can post a rebuttal [and a link to WUWT] here.
December temperature trend since 1939 is -0.03F/Decade. In other words, since the late 1800’s to today, most of the warming happened up to 1939. There has been no warming of December temperatures since then.
Yeah, and now the MSM are using the “warmest” meme to great effect without the NOAA’s caveat: “PLEASE NOTE: All of the temperature and precipitation ranks and values are based on preliminary data. The ranks will change when the final data are processed, but will not be replaced on these pages. Graphics based on final data are provided on the Temperature and Precipitation Maps page and the Climate at a Glance page as they become available.”
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/08/16413805-noaa-2012-was-warmest-year-ever-for-us-second-most-extreme#comments
Comments should be made in NBCnews reminding them of NOAA’s caveat. Looks like a page full of convulsion going into the apoplectic stage of hyperbole on “climate extreme.”
How much area in percentage terms is the U.S. with respect to the rest of the planet? 1 percent or something? It’s like bragging that the state of Rhode Island was the warmest in a 100 while the country was nothing special. Such games.
I was going through some statistics papers and came across a 1989 sheet from the Health Physics Society (ionizing radiation safety) newsletter which summarized that there was no statistically significant warming in the contiguous US from 1895 to 1987. I copied the article below. Note that in the original type, “…the authors examined the DATA…”, DATA was highlighted.
[begin quote]
HEALTH PHYSICS SOCIETY
ENVIRONMENTAL RADIATION SECTION
ERS Newsletter
SPRING ISSUE March 1989
What Greenhouse???
Those interested in non-ionizing environmental radiation may wish to read the paper “Are atmospheric ‘greenhouse’ effects apparent in the climatic record of the contiguous U.S. (1895-1987)?” published in the January issue of Geophysical Research Letters (16:49—52, 1989). Perhaps the following quote from the concluding section of the paper will further stimulate your curiosity:
“The most important result of this study is that there is no statistically significant evidence or change in annual precipitation for the contiguous U.S., 1895-1987. Neither is there evidence of change in winter or summer precipitation on the northern plains during that period.”
This study deals with data from the atmosphere above one land mass and is not necessarily representative of the global atmosphere, most of which is above the oceans. However, it is refreshing to note that the authors examined the data, not the output of a computer model (which is all too frequently called “data”), and compiled an important data set which may be useful for checking some of the models.
[end quote]
I checked on line, and the paper is archived at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989GeoRL..16…49H
The paper can be downloaded at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/GL016i001p00049/pdf
Yes, yes, but nobody, read that as few voters, live in Alaska anyway so those in the lower 48 simply ignore the north unless they want oil or salmon.
Pokerguy – I think it is the CONUS which makes up just under 2% of the earth’s surface.
@ur momisugly Neil Jordan so from the conclusion and the names of the authors, I conclude, THEY KNEW.
In 1989 the TEAM knew there was no warming in the USA data.
By 2003 in was claimed by same people, of this same data, that it was warming like never before.
Small wonder Steve McIntyre’s investigations terrified them.
in australia, bushfires are being exploited to the CAGW hilt, whilst UK Met Office goes in the other direction:
9 Jan: SMH: Ben Cubby: Records will keep tumbling with blistering heatwaves here to stay
The hottest average maximum temperature ever recorded across Australia – 40.33 degrees, set on Monday – might stand for only 24 hours and be eclipsed when all of Tuesday’s readings come in. The previous record had stood since December 21, 1972.
”The current heatwave – in terms of its duration, its intensity and its extent – is unprecedented in our records,” said the Bureau of Meteorology’s manager of climate monitoring and prediction, David Jones…
“Those of us who spend our days trawling – and contributing to – the scientific literature on climate change are becoming increasingly gloomy about the future of human civilisation,” said Liz Hanna, convener of the human health division at the Australian National University’s climate change Adaption Network.
”We are well past the time of niceties, of avoiding the dire nature of what is unfolding, and politely trying not to scare the public,” Dr Hanna said. ”The unparalleled setting of new heat extremes is forcing the continual upwards trending of warming predictions for the future, and the time scale is contracting.”
Around the world, this year could be the hottest ever recorded by modern instrumentation, according to a recent study by Britain’s Met Office…
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/records-will-keep-tumbling-with-blistering-heatwaves-here-to-stay-20130108-2cetq.html
8 Jan: UK Telegraph: John-Paul Ford Rojas: Global warming at a standstill, new Met Office figures show
The Met Office has downgraded its forecast for global warming to suggest that by 2017 temperatures will have remained about the same for two decades.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/9787662/Global-warming-at-a-standstill-new-Met-Office-figures-show.html
“Warmest year in forever!” stuff is an interesting psychological play. It implies to someone who doesn’t know better that the entire year has been the warmest ever. What actually happened was a very unusually warm spring pushed up the average for the entire year. If you look at fall temperatures for 2012, all of that warmth went away and by fall of 2012, fall 2012 was cooler than fall of 2011. We did have a very warm spring in the US (warmest EVAR!). That warmth was in March (warmest EVAR!) but most of that warmth went away in April which was cooler than April 6 years ago. May was also pretty warm, but not as warm as one in the 1930’s was. But it was the month of March that made the annual average of 2012 so high. It wasn’t warm for the entire year.
It’s my understanding that the data set goes back to 1896. I wonder how many stations have been moved or urbanized in the last 116 years?
From the NOAA SOTC pre-release: “2012 was a historic year for extreme weather that included …hurricanes and storms…
Historic year for hurricanes? If NOAA’s thinks 2012 was an ‘extreme’ year for hurricanes, that made landfall in the contiguous U.S., it makes one one wonder what their definition of extreme is. But NOAA also says this:
**As of December 2005, landfalling wind speeds in the sixth indicator are determined using the following logic:
1. For landfalls prior to 1915: Use wind speed observation prior to landfall as landfalling windspeed.
2. For landfalls from 1915 to 1930: Use wind speed observation prior to landfall if observation was at 12Z. Otherwise use midpoint windspeed value from assigned landfalling Saffir-Simpson Scale.
3. For landfalls from 1931 to 1979: Use wind speed observation prior to landfall if observation was at either 0Z or 12Z. Otherwise use midpoint windspeed value from assigned landfalling Saffir-Simpson Scale.
4. For landfalls from 1980 to the present: Use estimated landfalling windspeed as reproted in the Tropical Cyclone Reports issued by the National Hurricane Center.
In other words all landfalling tropical cyclones prior to 1980 use wind speed ‘observation’ and all landfalling tropical cyclones after 1980 use ‘estimated’ wind speed!?
December 2012 SOTC is up:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2012/12
Looks like a CONUS Tavg value to me. “National Overview”, “Climate Highlights – December”:
The average contiguous U.S. temperature for December was 36.4°F, 3.4°F above the 20th century long-term average, and the 10th warmest December on record.
I think someone may have been messing with you.
The 2012 Annual SOTC is also interesting (bold added):
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2012/13
Warmest year EVAH for less than 2% of the planet? Definitely time to offer further financial offerings to the weather gods.
For absolute proof this extreme warmth is an all-encompassing global event, there’s this report from the other side of the globe:
Since everyone knows Gillard is the most honest politician in Australia and would never lie, not even for political advantage, certainly this is even more irrefutable proof that it all really is worse than we thought.