(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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@- Liberal Skeptic
“Heat waves are just weather, the heat wave in the US was caused by a blocking effect.The same thing that caused that Russian heat wave a few years ago, which was initially claimed to be caused by global warming but was later corrected to be nothing more than simple weather ”
No, it was initially claimed to be ‘just weather’ with the proviso that AGW just added a fraction of a degC on top, but it has since been discovered that the blocking loops of the jet stream convergence zones are the result of a warming arctic with increasing ice melt in the summer months.
http://conference2011.wcrp-climate.org/posters/C11/C11_Francis_M123B.pdf
Hope I’m not overlooking something but it appears that as of this morning (Wednesday 1/9), the disclaimer noting that updated information will not be posted to the SOTC page has disappeared. One now finds, near the top of the page:
“Issued January 8, 2013: The data presented in this report are final through July and preliminary from August-December. Ranks, anomalies, and percent areas may change as more complete data are received and processed.”
Curiously, we’re not advised whether these anticipated changes will be noted on the SOTC page.
At the very bottom of the page there is a link to a further disclaimer about data not necessarily matching what’s found at other agency sites.
Am I just overindulging my suspicious nature by wondering why these things seem to be changing from day to day, if not more frequently?
The only reason the June derecho was remarkable is because it blew thru Wash DC. If that had been restricted to the Appalachian mountains or Ohio valley (or any low-populated region) it wouldn’t have been much news.
I see “warm,” “warmer,” and “warmest” in that report. Not a hint of “cold,” “colder,” “coldest” anywhere, all year, in the contiguous United States?
/Mr Lynn
I can tell you that it was colder and wetter than average in the US Pacific Northwest. Averages are meaningless.
Reply to izen :
Next you need to demonstrate that the warming arctic is actually caused by global warming. Which we don’t have enough data to prove.
We do have anecdotal reports from the time that the kind of melting we are seeing now has happened before though. Is it really outside of natural variability, and therefore not weather?
Neil Jordan says:
January 8, 2013 at 11:59 am
The paper can be downloaded at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/GL016i001p00049/pdf
======
Here is the conclusion, pg 52.
“The most important result of this study is that there is no statistically significant evidence of an overall increase in annual temperature or change in annual precipitation for the contiguous U.S., 1895-1987.”
No change in temp or precip 1895-1987, with Hansen and Jones as references. The team clearly knew this.
10 years later, after thousands of weather stations in Siberia were removed with the break up of the USSR – Global Warming. Fancy that, remove thousands of weather stations in one of the coldest spots on earth, and global average temperatures go up.
And they call themselves scientists.
I find it interesting that the record high mean temperature is supported by local data. There were 362 locations in CONUS which recorded their all time record high in 2012 and exactly 0 locations that recorded their all time record low in 2012. There were 34007 record daily highs and 6,663 record daily lows for the years. This ratio of about 5;1 is the greatest in the NCDC data base. 2012 certainly was a record hot year in the US. I expect that the next year with a significant El Nino will set a new record for the global high mean temperature.
oldfossil says:
January 8, 2013 at 10:57 pm
Am I the only person here apart from george e. smith who is just a little worried by the NOAA report? By the Australian heatwave and bush fires? Am I the only true skeptic present, always prepared to change my mind or refine my theories whenever new data comes in? Why do so many commenters here agree that a temperature optimum is better than a Little Ice Age, but they rubbish any confirmation that warming has occurred? Aren’t you guys being just a tiny bit inconsistent?
Unfortunately I won’t be around to see if Clive Best is right and after the current 60-year cycle bottoms out, rapid warming will resume from 2020 onward. Personally I don’t believe in any cycle where the underlying mechanism is unknown and “statistical artefact” is the most likely explanation.
(At least this comment won’t be moderated out of existence, the way it would happen if I posted a contrary view at SkepSci.)
I would say that you are. For an “Old Fossil” you seem to have forgotten your childhood experiences, or possibly you spent it indoors, or possibly you may be losing your memory. There’s a difference between being a sceptic and blowing where ever the most recent draft pushes you.
Droughts and floods are things I remember all the way back into the 1950s. I recall the announcement of US nuclear submarines surfacing at the North Pole. I remember sitting in the family station wagon while my dad explained to fire fighters that he could not just have my mom drive us kids home while he was drafted to fight a forest fire. She didn’t drive. As they talked, ash and smoke obscured everything ahead. I recall men in a small motor boat cruising a flooded intersection near my parent’s house and joking about whether they should stop at the stop sign whose octagon was half-visible above the water. Flooding had stopped just feet from our front door in Sacramento.
As regards Australia, you want read about fire-mediated ecologies – like much of Australia, and even California in North America. Most people seem to believe that fire is an unnatural event, yet many parts of the planet have plants and entire ecologies that are evolved to experience periodic burning. We humans don’t like the landscape to burn, but then we do build stuff that burns down readily. Increases in “damages” and “costs” related to “extreme” weather events correlates most tightly with increases in human populations and development, not storm frequency.
As concerns ice ages little or otherwise, the record of death, disease and starvation in temperate climate areas is linked tightly to cold waves. Droughts are also often tied to colder periods. The 1970s drought in California was during a period of concern regarding the return of a glacial epoch because of cold temperatures. Colder air is drier. Also, lower CO2 means poorer plant growth. Cooler planetary temperatures mean lower available CO2, and studies of glacial epoch productivity indicate reduced biological productivity.
The “All time high” 2012 temperatures are interesting.
Most of the records are for the same locations, and mostly in July.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2012/13/supplemental/page-6/
Bill–I looked over the all time highs and noted results for Wisconsin, Colorado, Indiana, Tennessee, Geogria, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and probably other states as well. Not sure what you mean by “for the same locations.” Yes, not surprisingly, the all time highs are during summer, mostly July and August. Here’s a safe prediction–As the climate warms, we can still expect the warmest weather during summer and the coldest during winter. The greatest warming, however, often occurs during late winter and early spring. For example, last year, the greatest number of daily record temperatures in North America was during March.
“Am I the only person here apart from george e. smith who is just a little worried by the NOAA report? By the Australian heatwave and bush fires? Am I the only true skeptic present, always prepared to change my mind or refine my theories whenever new data comes in?”
Old Fossil,
I suppose you are. If you only chase headlines you may be surprised that for every Austrailian Heat wave there is a Bangledesh cold snap (Bangledesh is the tropics/subtropics, BTW); for every heat wave in the US, there is a cold snap in East Europe, etc… Globally, 2012 wasn’t much to write home about from a statistical point of view. And one can say the same about the last 2 decades. So, if you wish to argue over hundreths of a degree C variations in temps, be my guest. Additionally, the GCMs run by the Alarmists have over shot their temp projections (based on CO2 cocentrations) by an obscene magnitude (on the warm side) going back to Hansen and 1988. The Alarmists also cannot with any precision model changes in ENSO. And if you can’t forecast what ENSO is going to do you lost the ball game.
On changing the past temp data:
NOAA spokesperson Scott Smullen:
“These kinds of improvements get us even closer to the true climate signal, and help our nation even more accurately understand its climate history.”
Government climate scientist Peter Thorne:
“These have been shown through at least three papers that have appeared in the past 12 months to be an improvement.”
I don’t know if this directly relates but I stumbled on this today.
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/iln/climo/summaries/warm2012.php
What caught my eye was that Cincinnati has the longest record and that 5 of the 10 hottest years there were in the 1800’s.
Just something to ponder.
Top Ten U.S. Weather/Climate Events for 2012
item #4 – Record Wildfire Activity
According to the National Fire Information Center;
http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm
2012 YTD (1/1/2012 – 12/21/2012) – Fires: 67,300; Acres: 9,208,454
2006 (1/1/06 – 12/21/06) – Fires: 96,147; Acres: 9,830,521
2007 (1/1/07 – 12/21/07) – Fires: 85,456; Acres: 9,313,613
Huh???
In addition to the above, in 1980 there were 234,892 fires reported (5,260,825 acres).