The September 2009 average temperature for the contiguous United States was above the long-term average, according to NOAA’s monthly State of the Climate report issued today. Based on records going back to 1895, the monthly National Climatic Data Center analysis is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides.
The average September temperature of 66.4 degrees F was 1.0 degree F above the 20th Century average. Precipitation across the contiguous United States in September averaged 2.48 inches, exactly the 1901-2000 average.
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
U.S. Temperature Highlights
- Below-normal temperatures across parts of the south and Northeast were offset by record high values in the West and above normal temperatures in the Northwest and northern tier states resulting in a higher average temperature for the contiguous United States.
- Both California and Nevada experienced their warmest September of the 115-year record. Additionally Montana and North Dakota posted their third warmest, Idaho its fourth warmest, Utah fifth warmest, Minnesota sixth warmest, and Oregon registered its eighth warmest.
- On a regional level, the West experienced its warmest September on record. The Northwest and West North Central experienced their sixth and eleventh warmest such periods. Below-normal temperatures were recorded in the South and Northeast.
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
U.S. Precipitation Highlights
- While precipitation equaled the long-term average for the contiguous U.S., regional amounts varied widely. The South experienced its sixth-wettest September, which was countered by the sixth-driest period around the Great Lakes and upper Midwest region.
- Arkansas registered its second wettest September, Tennessee its fifth, with Mississippi and Alabama posting their sixth wettest on record. Despite notable and flood-producing rains in northern Georgia, drier conditions near the coast kept the state’s overall average out of the top ten.
- Maine and Wisconsin each experienced their fourth driest September and both New Hampshire and Michigan had their seventh driest such periods.
- By the end of September, moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 15 percent of the contiguous United States, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Drought intensified in the Upper Midwest and eastern Carolinas, while remaining entrenched in much of the West. Drought conditions remain severe in south Texas, despite some improvement.
Other Highlights
- During September, 5,535 fires burned approximately 378,523 acres — both were below the 2000-2009 average for the month. The acreage burned by wildfires was roughly half of the 2000-2009 average. For the January-September period, 70,217 fires were reported, which is slightly above the 10-year average, while acreage burned is slightly less than average.
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.
Scientists, researchers, and leaders in government and industry use NCDC’s monthly reports to help track trends and other changes in the world’s climate. The data have a wide range of practical uses, from helping farmers know what to plant, to guiding resource managers with critical decisions about water, energy and other vital assets.
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.
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But this is *weather*, not climate!
Huh? I’d thought we had a nice late summer -NE Ore..Nobody’s getting warm temps as of this last week. we are getting a bit of SW flow and rain-we need it. but,got a question
is the record for areas of population or land area? I think land mass would have
something to do with the areas that were warmer or colder,or is it because there
are more people in Cali per sq.Than say Oklahoma?..
I had the feeling September might have come in a little high but October looks like it will be cold in North America from the looks of things so far.
Can’t wait for the numbers for Oct, where record lows and early snows have been observed everywhere. Of course, the warmists (fearmongers?) will be quick to dismiss that as “weather” not “climate”.
And of course, give me warming instead of cooling, any day.
Looks like October is kind of cool
Lowest Maxes
Total Number of Records for October 2009
(out of 74,517 stations with at least 30 years of data)
New: 2,412 + Tied: 473 = Total: 2,885
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/records/index.php?ts=daily&elem=lomx&month=10&day=0&year=2009&sts%5B%5D=US&submitted=Get+Records#recs
Lowest Mins
Total Number of Records for October 2009
(out of 74,457 stations with at least 30 years of data)
New: 1,032 + Tied: 375 = Total: 1,407
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/records/index.php?ts=daily&elem=mint&month=10&day=0&year=2009&sts%5B%5D=US&submitted=Get+Records#recs
There are snow records as well
Looks close to accurate for here in Minnesota. After running well below normal since Spring, we had a nice warm stretch in the middle of Sept. However, since the last week in Sept to today we are averaging a solid 10 degrees below normal, with the last five days averaging 17 degrees below normal. AccuWeather’s 15 day forecast for where I live has only one day approaching a normal high temp and if their forecast temps hold up, we’re looking at more than 12degrees below normal for the month. I WANT MY GLOBAL WARMING BACK!!!!
When NOAA understands changes in the Earth’s environment why do they only predict future weather events instead of just reporting them?
The way they “correct” the numbers, which we don’t actually have a clue how they do it, makes their numbers meaningless… and how much this costs the tax payers again? Like someone said… GARBAGE!
“Additional quality control is applied to the data… as increased scientific methods improve NCDC’s processing algorithms”
I wonder how often they improve/change the algorithms…
The southern end of Australia has been colder than the last few years for September into October.
I call BS and will await the revised numbers. I was in California and Nevada for most of September, the temperatures were not above normal.
I am going to do some digging for local temps, but I know that the temperatures were mild on average with only one short term hot spell reported for the wine regions in the harvest reports.
NAPA WINE HARVEST Sept 11
“Syrah is ripening nicely while not yet exhibiting its characteristic shrivel.”
“The cool weather during the last few days has slowed things down.”
“Very little damage occurred with this week’s heat spell.”
” We have watered a little less this year than normally. The weather is still up and down — what a crazy summer. It looks like early October before we start picking.”
“A series of perfect ripening days — little morning fog, full sunshine, not too hot — has moved our grapes much closer to harvest.”
Not proof of anything but I trust local news for the truth about weather. Make no mistake this report is about weather and not climate.
The best way to do this, because the Earth does not give a tinker’s damn about what month it is, is to report 3-month running averages along with monthly averages, just like they do with El Nino data. Why isn’t this done? And wouldn’t it make sense, since the conditions of the oceans determines our weather, that both sets of temp data should be reported in such a way as to compare them?
I wonder if above average temperatures would hold up above say 2000ft elevation. Here in the high Ozarks last month was like October with near record precipitation.
NOAA analysis is based on GISS, right?
What is the Sat. bases anomally for the USA based on UHA and RSS?
Let’s see how they measure October’s temperature. This month is starting off as colder than average in California.
Here’s a color map of California’s temperature anomalies for October (thus far).
http://www.calclim.dri.edu/cgi-bin/anomimage.pl?cal1mTvdep.gif
“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”
Does this seem a little arrogant to anyone else?
Here in Las Vegas, September daily averages were shown as high in the newspaper, mostly, I think, because overnight temperatures were warmer than “normal”.
The average high for this time of year is in the 60s, but now our high is equivalent to the average low (mid 40s). Maybe NOAA can apply the magical algorithm to my skin to warm it up?
I’m sorry, but I’m calling “BS” on this. It has been much hotter in the south bay in Septembers past and it was hotter in the central valley in Septembers past. My son in the LA area said it was hot, but not all that hot.
What thermometers were used for this conclusion and with what processing?
You can’t have a “no tomatoes” summer and call it a hot summer too. It just doesn’t work that way. Heck, a couple of years ago I even managed to get a Brandywine to ripen some fruit. This year I barely got the “4th of July” and “Siberian” to give me anything. AND my runner beans have produced all summer long with maybe a couple of week ‘flowers only’ period (that the hummingbirds love) while in prior years I’ve had “all flowers all the time” for 2+ summer months (they don’t set seed in the mid-90F+ range).
And we had rain in September (fairly rare).
SO, as far as I can tell, the California temperature claim is dead flat bogus and must be a mathematical artifact of manipulation or is based on a really broken set of thermometers.
Sidebar: A family member gets headaches if we run the AC. As a coping behaviour, I “water the roof” on really hot days and if it gets really really hot, I hang tarps from the eaves to shade the house. This year I did NO tarps and maybe watered the roof 2 days (and even then it wasn’t too bad). In 1998 or so it was full tarps on 2 sides (W and S) and mister hoses under the eaves too along with roof sprinklers and it was still hot. Oh, and I had sunflowers planted to shade the parts of the W side that the tarps did not shade.
Bottom line is that this summer in general, including September, were the coolest in several years. No Way was this a record hot month. Something is egregiously cooked in the books.
Also, for California to have had the “warmest September of the 115-year record” would there not have had to be a few “record hot days”? I don’t remember seeing a litany of “Record Hot Day in California” news reports.
This just doesn’t come close to passing the “smell test”. I suspect someone tried to use the “big empty” of Nevada and rural California to make up for the fact that it was cold “back east” (that is, east of Tahoe 🙂 and is hoping nobody notices.
Below NORMAL temps in the Northeast? Sheesh. June, July and most of August were miserable. September was GREAT while October has a decision to make. Leaves turning earlier than usual, fewer than NORMAL Canada Geese-rats …. so what am I to conclude? We’re all gonna drown and die!
RE: I call BS and will await the revised numbers. I was in California and Nevada for most of September, the temperatures were not above normal.
I agree. It was not abnormally warm.
In my neck of the woods, the middle of September seemed warmer [although August wasn’t nearly as warm as usual] but that went bye-bye in the last week. Heck, the final day of the month, I saw the starlings beginning to gather [easily 3 weeks earlier than usual].
Given the current temps, I can see why. The high tomorrow: 48F, about 20 below the seasonal norm.
If we have snow by Halloween, I won’t be the least bit surprised.
“Both California and Nevada experienced their warmest September of the 115-year record.”
Say what? Not in my neck of the woods. I have been in hot Septembers in California. Seen plenty of them. Bay Area, Sac, So Mother Lode, No. Mother Lode, No. Sierra, Klamath-Trinity. No, this was a very warm and rather nice September, with a truly hot couple of days in the No. Valley, but it was no barn burner.
Ridiculous, I say. I saw a smatter of records broken, but some of them were because the records have been foreshortened, dropping of the really hot years. What was remarkable wasn’ the heat, it was the dryness. RH dropping to 3 one day. Which meant it cooled off quickly at night for anyone at elevation.
Hottest Sept. in 115 yrs? I don’t think so.
Sorry, not believing their temperature map. I know for FACT that North Dakota was below normal. I know for FACT that Tennessee was below normal. And I know for FACT that Washington was above normal.
How do I know? Because I tracked temperatures every day for the entire month, and only but a handful of temperatures ever reached normal for the areas below normal, and were significantly above normal in Washington.
Sorry, just not believing what they are telling me here. I will believe my own eyes first.
The September temperature was what it was, although we might not know what it was. It might have been “1.0 degree F above the 20th century average” and then again it might not have been. We are, after all, coming up from the end of the LIA in the mid 19th century. For the purpose of this discussion what is important is that it is uncorrelated with (gasp) CO2. I do, however, think it is time to locate my favorite sweater.
In California they keep their thermometers next to bush fires and the exhausts of Arnold’s SUV. The governator needs those billions in bail out funds to beat “climate change”.