FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOAA: April Temperatures Slightly Cooler Than Average for U.S.
May 8, 2009
The April 2009 temperature for the contiguous United States was below the long-term average, based on records going back to 1895, according to an analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC.
The average April temperature of 51.2 degrees F was 0.8 degree F below the 20th Century average. Precipitation across the contiguous United States in April averaged 2.62 inches, which is 0.19 inch above the 1901-2000 average.
U.S. Temperature Highlights
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
- April temperatures were near normal across much of the United States. On a regional scale, only the Northeast (above-normal) and the West North Central (below-normal) deviated significantly from normal.
- New Hampshire observed its eighth warmest April, based on data going back to 1895. Unlike much of the Northeast, the Midwest experienced a cooler-than-normal month. From North Dakota southward to Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia, temperature averages were below normal.
- For the year-to-date period, only North Dakota and Washington have experienced notably cooler-than-normal average temperatures. In contrast, much of the South and Southwest regions were above normal. New Mexico had its ninth warmest such period on record.
- Based on NOAA’s Residential Energy Demand Temperature Index, the contiguous U.S. temperature-related energy demand was 2.3 percent below average in April.
U.S. Precipitation Highlights
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
- Above-normal precipitation fell across parts of the Central and South regions, while the West and Northwest regions experienced below-normal precipitation.
- Precipitation was above normal for the contiguous United States. Georgia had its fifth wettest April on record, Kansas and Michigan had their ninth wettest, and Illinois, its tenth. Only seven states were notably drier than normal for April.
- Year to date, the Northeast experienced its fourth driest January-through-April period on record and it was the twelfth driest period for the contiguous U.S.
- By the end of April, moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 18 percent of the contiguous United States, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Severe, or extreme, drought conditions continued in parts of California, Florida, Hawai’i, Nevada, Wisconsin, the southern Appalachians, and the southern Plains, with exceptional drought in southern Texas.
About 21 percent of the contiguous United States had moderately-to-extremely wet conditions at the end of April, according to the Palmer Index (a well-known index that measures both drought intensity and wet spell intensity).
Other Highlights
- International Falls, Minn., recorded 125 inches of snow so far this winter season, breaking the previous record of 116 inches set in the 1995-1996 winter season. Another seasonal snowfall record was broken in Spokane, Wash., where 97.7 inches of snowfall broke the old record of 93.5 inches set in 1915-1916.
- About eight percent of the contiguous U.S. was covered by snow at end of April, according to an analysis by the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center. Snow coverage during the month peaked at 30.2 percent on April 6, after a late-season winter storm hit the Midwest and Plains.
- The 263 preliminary tornadoes reported in April was above the three-year average of 200 confirmed tornadoes.
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.
Here’s examples of areas a bit hotter than normal and a bit colder than normal in the same region
http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp6.html
http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp9.html
And the website also shows colder than normal in northern canada ( http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp2.html)and hotter than normal in the southwestern US(http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp1.html), plenty of stuff for both sides to do cherrypicking on
“Alexej Buergin (16:18:22) :
They seem to have lost their energy a bit…”
CT really has lost their energy. Their Seasonal Sea Ice Graph hasn’t been updated to include autumn/fall (OND) 2008, annual 2008 or winter (JFM) 2009. Even if they had been updated the numbers are suspect to put it kindly:
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u43/gplracerx/SummerArcticIceExtent4-2-2009.jpg
Under their “New Products”, the Comparison Product hasn’t worked for months, and when it did the comparisons were compromised since newer dates show the snow cover which compromises clarity. Also the older dates had sea ice encroaching on land areas which exaggerated the apparent size of the older dates.
The high resolution animation of the year’s sea ice retreat has not been updated since 2007. I wonder why.
At the bottom of the page, a look at the Northern Hemisphere sea ice minimum of 2007, is labeled “sea ice autopsy”. Could there be a better way to display bias?
To their credit, they did remove a quote from Al Gore at Anthony’s urging, but it seems that they should probably either remove or correct these items mentioned. It would at least be a start.
They also have never answered my e-mail. Maybe they are just too busy. I can understand that, nut perhaps they could simply remove the more egregious and obvious problems.
Basil
And your point is?
A: You agree with Leif.
B: You agree with TomS
I think it is the latter. Am I wrong?
Well…it all evens out. Yes it was warmer this usual in [Southern] Ohio for the month April…but it was due to a dominant southern wind. Such as it has always been for that portion of the state.
On the other hand, the month of May has been decidedly cooler than usual [so far…]and yes, the winds have been predominantly out of the north/north-west. That’s just the way it is, a south wind brings ‘southern’ temperatures, and northerly winds remind us that Canada exports more than just beer and hockey pucks. :p
DJ:
No, GISS shows temps trending up, while everyone else shows declining temperatures: click
Don’t be perplexed, DJ. Actually, the other temperature sets you referred to show global cooling. But GISS manipulates the figures to show whatever they want. And what they want to show is global warming.
Richard M (15:38:51) commenting on:
—————
Andy Greene (14:10:15) :
“I think the title says it all. Fox news will be crowing about April weather disproving global warming, but the fact remains that climate has become more up and down, and warmer on average, over the past 50 years (or more).”
—————
Could you provide a reference?
Every time I see a statement like yours it usually turns out to be false. Let’s see if you can back your statement up with facts.”
—————
Well, it seems Richard M was correct to question Andy Greene’s assertion for the US at least.
Here is the monthly anomaly for the US (in the usual form we are used to seeing – anomaly from average). As you can see there is just as much variation as ever and there is very little warming trend in US temps.
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3491/usmonthlyanom.png
Since this chart is basically useless with the huge variation that occurs (except to note that most warmer’s assumptions are wrong when you look at the facts), it shows why the NOAA talks about this month compared to the average etc. and doesn’t provide a monthly anomaly chart.
A more useful chart is the 12 month moving average (which shows some ups, some downs, perhaps a slight warming trend, but also a very big drop over the last few years).
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8913/ustempsf.png
Those claiming global warming should look at a global chart, rather than just looking at the U.S.: click
A 0.2° C change over thirty years is well within measurement error.
Retired Engineer (15:46:32) :
Good point. He shoots, he scores.
Also hotter than average across Australia, (for April)
No it wasn’t.
April was much colder in the north and average to a little above average in the south.
The only area significantly above average was the desert interior of Western Australia, and I happen to know that is based on a single weather station in a half million square kilometers (Warburton). So any deviations from the rest of Australia in that area are questionable to say the least.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/temp_maps.cgi?variable=maxanom&area=nat&period=month&time=history&steps=2
And if you look at the Australian temperature anomalies for the last year, everywhere is near average to cooler than average except the WA desert interior, which indicates data problems from the single station (Warburton).
BTW, I’ve been to similar locations in the WA desert interior and taking weather measurements isn’t something people are concerned about. They also experience high staff turnover. So one year measurements may be made diligently and the next not.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/temp_maps.cgi?variable=maxanom&area=nat&period=12month&time=history&steps=3
DJ and Phillip_B, this just goes to show that “Global Mean Temperature” is a useless metric. At any time some places will warm while others cool and yet others remain relatively static.
Basil (16:12:07) :
“These cycles were not significantly larger than several cycles in the 19th and 18th centuries, but temperature were…”
http://i43.tinypic.com/f9ph6v.jpg
You should know by now that several lines of evidence show that the sunspot number in the past is wrongly calibarted.
1) values before ~1945 should be increased by 20%
2) values before ~1890 by another 20%
http://www.leif.org/research/Foukal-F107-Rz.pdf
http://www.leif.org/research/Napa%20Solar%20Cycle%2024.pdf
and there is more…
When New Hampshire leads the nation, you know it’s politics, not science.
Lessee, if the sun is main weather driver people are correct, then cooler cloudier is to be expected. April and May, check.
If the CO2 main weather driver people are correct, then hotter drier is to be expected. April and May, just anomolies folks, nothing to see here, move along now.
Two months do not a trend make, but by the end of this week, we are on track to be the coolest May here in Tennessee I can remember in the last 30 or so. The issue is, if the trend is upward as the Global Warming Alarmists would have us believe, then two data points this far below the mean would be a one in a thousand or so probability.
All these temperature differences, either warmer or colder, can be directly related to what the jet stream was doing during the month under consideration. Those deep jet stream loops, as big as they are, go a long way in bringing or shielding cold Arctic air to the upper NH American continent. Why was it hot in April 2007? Check the jet stream archive maps.
DJ (16:56:18) >
I would have to agree with you, at least partially. I don’t have a great deal of confidence in our ability derive accurate global average temperatures with the present satellite technology and I’m even less confident in the surface station record and I would refer you to the post from earlier today about Anthony’s Surfacestation Project if your still wondering why anyone would be dubious of the GISS dataset. Personally, I think trying to derive accurate global average temperatures with any of the methods we’re now using is a fool’s errand and still would be even if we were able to magically remove all the errors, biases, and adjustments now afflicting the system. Global average temperature is an essentially meaningless concept on a planet that moment to moment is experiencing temperature extremes more than 200 degrees apart and every variation possible in between those extremes. When we have amassed a long term record of the fluctuations of the planets total energy balance i.e. the difference between TSI and the energy reradiated out space, we may able to make some more educated guesses about the state of the planetary climate, but until then I can’t see any of this stuff really telling us anything we can depend upon.
Correction: The station is Giles not Warburton.
On the map of Australian climate reference weather stations below, Giles is the dot near where the WA/SA/NT borders meet. The nearest climate reference stations are 600 to 800 kilometers away.
Curiously, in the area showing the only significantly warmer than average temperatures in Australia over the last year (to the west of Giles) there are no climate reference stations. Apart from Giles (a hundred or so kilometers to the east), the nearest one is perhaps five hundred kilometers away from the anomalously warm area.
This looks like a highly questionable case of extrapolating data to cover areas where you don’t have data, which results in the warmest place (in term of the anomaly) in Australia.
BTW, in Western Australia we are used to big distances.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/reference.shtml
And New Zealand is having its best start to the ski season in 20 years – with ski fields looking at opening early as there is so much snow (this after closing late last year as the season extended):
http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/new-zealand/2402746/NZ-ski-fields-get-ready-to-open
Plus a huge hail storm and tornadoes / waterspouts hit one of the big seaside resorts:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10571716
(from the website – WeatherWatch analyst Philip Duncan said the icy conditions had arrived about two months early. “This is July weather. Winter has definitely come early, with hail storms, lightning strikes and weak tornadoes.”)
Smokey:
10 YEARS is WEATHER, not CLIMATE… and… and… the dog ate my homework!
Quoting:
“with exceptional drought in southern Texas.”
Commenting:
The end of April saw (literally) canoeing in the streets of my neighborhood in Houston. That would be Southern Texas. Never before in the 13 years I’ve been in this house.
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.
Trust the NOAA! All hail the mighty NOAA! Never question the all-knowing NOAA!
Steve Hempell (17:39:25) :
Basil
And your point is?
A: You agree with Leif.
B: You agree with TomS
I think it is the latter. Am I wrong?
Well, the “official” data would indicate that 20th Century has seen more sunspot activity than the 18th or 19th, so I was challenging Leif’s reply. In response, Leif argues that earlier sunspot numbers are too low. So I remembered that I had Leif’s TSI data handy, which yields this:
http://i39.tinypic.com/23kyovl.jpg
So, some broad, centennial scale swings, but not higher at the end of the 20th Century than during the middle of the 19th, using Leif’s data. But I don’t think that rules out an influence from the broad centennial scale swings in the solar cycle on terrestrial climate. Maybe we should be wondering why the mid-19th century was warmer?
I meant: Maybe we should be wondering why the mid-19th century wasn’t warmer?
Do the alarmists promote life without CO2? Are the alarmists leading by example? How does your “carbon” foot-print compare with the “carbon” foot-prints of the leading alarmists? Is there a huge discrepancy between the CO2 contributions of the alarmist “do as I say, not as I do” charlatans and your personal “carbon” foot-print? Do you enjoy being controlled by ill-informed politicians? Well, you are about to get your enjoyment.
—————————————————-
Carbon is not causing global warming or climate change
All life on planet depends on CO2
Dr. Tim Ball
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10987
By Dr. Tim Ball Monday, May 11, 2009
A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses: it is an idea that possesses the mind. – Robert Bolton
As a loife long resident of NH, I can tell you that while the average for April in NH was above normal, that is a very deceptive statistic. Most of the month was well below normal, but the last week of the month we got a couple >90 degrees F days that totally skewed the monthly average upwards. The whole spring has been cold here and the lilacs and other flowers are at least a couple weeks behind normal.
Oh, and I don’t believe those >90 degree days were anyway. I’d love to see what the stations here look like, because I have experienced the weather here for almost 50 years, and those were not the way 90+ degree days feel.