Hottest U.S. Spring on Record

U.S. experiencing record-breaking  temperatures: Report

Spring 2012 was the hottest spring on record. United States has also recorded both warmest year-to-date and twelve-month periods for lower 48, and 2nd warmest May: NOAA

March-May nationally-averaged temperature rose 5.2°F above the 1901-2000 long-term average of 57.1°F, breaking the record for warmest spring set in 1910 by 2.0°F, reported NOAA.

The 11 warmest 12-months periods ever recorded in the U.S.

The June 2011-May 2012 period was the warmest 12-month period of any 12 months on record for the contiguous United States.

These are the warmest 12-month periods on record for the contiguous United States. [All of these periods have occurred since June 1999. ] During the June 2011-May 2012 period, each of the 12 months ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time in the 1895-present record. The odds of this occurring randomly is 1 in 531,441.  Source: NCDC/NOAA. Temp Departures Table.

The warmest year-to-date

“The January-May months were the warmest such period on record for the contiguous United States, with an average temperature of 49.2°F, 5.0°F above the long-term average. Twenty-nine states, all east of the Rockies, were record warm for the five-month period and an additional 14 states had temperatures for the period among their ten warmest.”

• Click for similar supplemental information for about 150 U.S. cities

The second warmest May on record

May 2012 the second warmest May on record with the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. reaching 64.3°F, 3.3°F above the long-term average.

“The month’s high temperatures also contributed to the warmest spring, warmest year-to-date, and warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since recordkeeping began in 1895.”

Other significant climatic events during 2012 spring include

• 31 states east of Rockies experienced record warm.
• Gila National Forest Wildfire (Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire), aided by the ongoing drought and windy conditions, grew to 210,000 acres by the end of May, surpassing 2011’s Las Conchas Fire as the largest NM wildfire on record. [Currently reported at about 2670,000 and growing.]
• NW OR received record precipitation at 10.83 inches,  more than 69% above average.
• 3rd smallest snow cover extent across contiguous U.S.

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

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Heat, Worsening Drought Kill Thousands of Cattle

Mounting Human Toll Yet to Be Revealed

Deadly heat across the central and eastern United States  expands into the Ohio Valley and East Coast States

Highest heat indexes reported over the southern Plains, the Midwest, the Ohio Valley and the Mid-Atlantic: NWS

At least 5,000 cattle have died from heat in Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, reports said.

Composite Hazard Map Covering Temperature and Wind Threats, Precipitation, Soil/Wildfire Conditions. Click image to enlarge.

Maximum Daily Heat Index Map – Forecast. Click image to enlarge.

Drought

Current U.S. Drought Monitor. Click image to enlarge.

Highlights and Excerpts from the Weekly Report

• Great Plains:  The drought conditions across the Southern Great Plains persisted, and worsened across most areas.
• Texas: 94% of the range and pastureland was described as being in poor or very poor condition— a record weekly value.
• Oklahoma: Across Oklahoma, 78% of the range and pastureland described as poor or very poor.

• Great Lakes: Continued dryness that began about 60 days ago prompted the introduction of an area of abnormal dryness (D0) to the map across the lower Great Lakes region.
• Across western New York and Pennsylvania, continued dry conditions lead to an expansion of the recently introduced D0 area.
• Southeast and mid-Atlantic: A dry pattern persisted for the Carolinas, prompting a slight expansion in coverage of all the drought categories.
• Rockies and Southwest: Rainfall (approximately 0.5 inch) associated with monsoonal moisture contributed to a small improvement across northwest New Mexico (McKinley County).  The central portions of New Mexico remained dry while some portions across the south received nearly 6 inches of rainfall.  Even with 4-6 inches falling in the Cloudcroft region, improvement could not be pursued as average rainfall is 5.2 inches.  Within the same climate division, most other stations reported less than 1 inch of total rainfall during July.
• Colorado: Impacts from the drought continue to linger across the SW Colorado.

Temperature Forecast: Temperatures are expected to remain above normal for the central portions of the contiguous 48 states and below-normal along the Pacific Coast. (Source: )

Indiana and Ohio

“Their crops are behind, and to make things even worse, they are dry now, too,” said Ken Scheeringa, Indiana’s associate state climatologist.

The dry parts in the Midwest is forecast to expand merging into a larger area from eastern Iowa through northern Illinois, stretching into Ohio, Scheeringa said.

“That dome of hot air over Missouri-Kansas — that is so strong, it’s just overwhelming the whole United States now,” he said. “It’s huge.”

Illinois

“I think all the heat that has developed out in the Plains has spilled over into the rest of the Midwest. That has certainly been a contributing factor,” said  the state climatologist for Illinois.

Corn Supplies

“Because corn supplies in the United States, the world’s largest producer and exporter of the grain, are projected to fall to a 16-year low by the end of August, the grain trade is counting on a large harvest this fall.” Said a report.

Soil Moisture Forecasts

Constructed Analog Forecasts based on Soil Moisture. Source: CPC

Related Links

• Killer Heat Wave Continues in Central and Eastern U.S.

Killer Heat Wave Continues in Central and Eastern U.S.

Excessive heat and humidity expected to expand into the Ohio Valley and East Coast states this week: Forecasters

High heat index values of between 105 and 115 degrees through Friday (locally higher values possible) to expand into the Ohio Valley and East Coast, NWS reported.

Currently Excessive Heat Warnings, Watches and Heat Advisories are in effect over most of the central U.S., Ohio Valley and the Atlantic east coast from the Carolinas into New England.

US Weather Hazards Map.

 

Composite Hazard Map Covering Temperature and Wind Threats, Precipitation, Soil/Wildfire Conditions. Click image to enlarge.

Maximum Daily Heat Index Map – Forecast. Click image to enlarge.

Related Links:

• US Nuke Plants Threatened by Extreme Heat
• Killer Heat Persists in Central United States

 

More Weather Records Shattered as Forecast

Expect Frighteningly Hot Summer in 2011

In Global Climate Extremes INTENSIFYING

FIRE-EARTH forecast:

2011 Could Shatter 2010 Records

The wettest, coldest, driest, hottest, severest… could get even worse this year

Extremes of temperature, precipitation, drought and other climatic and weather events would continue to intensify throughout 2011, FIRE-EARTH forecasts.

It has, and it’s continuing to shatter more records …

United States

• Dulles International Airport set a new record of 75 degrees, 2 degrees higher than previous record of 1981, said a report.
• And “77 degrees at Reagan National Airport. That made Friday the warmest Feb. 18 recorded in Washington.”
• Boston reported a high of 60 degrees.
• A new record high temperature of 80ºF was set at Oklahoma’s Will Rogers World Airport on Thursday, The National Weather Service said.
• Just a week ago, the mercury plunged to minus 31 degrees  a in Nowata breaking previous Oklahoma record of minus 27 degrees.
• In North Carolina a record new high was set as mercury rose to 78 degrees at Raleigh-Durham International Airport,  23 degrees higher than normal for the date. The previous record stood at 75 degrees and remained unbroken since 1948, a report said.

Finland

• “The record low temperature for this winter inched down a degree or so last night. Between Thursday and Friday a new record low for 2010-2011 of -41.3°C was measured in Salla’s village of Naruska in southeastern Lapland, the Finnish Meteorological Institute reports.”

Russia

• Moscow region’s temperature fell to as low as minus 33.4 degrees Celsius in Klin, a 60-year record low for the region, a report said.

2011-2012: Record Shattering Period

Since January, many new rain and snowfall records have also been set, the latest of which was in Down Under.

Darwin, Australia recorded a total of 339.6mm of rain during the 24 hours ending at 9am Wednesday—an all time 24 hour rainfall record for the city.

Related Links:

• Record Low Temps in Oklahoma, Texas
• Global Climate Extremes INTENSIFYING
• Megadisasters Loom

Record Low Temps in Oklahoma, Texas

New Record Low for Oklahoma

Record Low Temperatures Over Oklahoma and Western North Texas

Nowata, Oklahoma records lowest ever temperature, an astounding -31 degrees

“Clear skies, light winds and several inches of snow cover allowed several areas across northern Oklahoma to set all-time record low temperatures. The mesonet site in Nowata, Oklahoma dropped to an amazing -31 degrees! This established a new all-time record for the state of Oklahoma. Other locations across central and southern Oklahoma, as well across western north Texas also set daily record low temperatures. Below is a list of low temperature records that occurred [Thursday morning.]” (source: NWS).

At least 8 locations recorded all-time temperature lows!

U-S Snow Depth

Graphical Temp Forecast:

Related Blog Pages

• Weather
• World Now
• Satellite Imagery

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• Northern Hemisphere
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• Transitory Impact of AO is the ‘Good News’
• Global Climate Extremes INTENSIFYING

Arctic cold hits New England

Deadly Arctic blast from Canada freezes northern U.S.

Many Schools in Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire close, as temperatures dip to as low as minus 35 [with wind chill of -51ºF.]

Sub-zero temperatures have been linked to at least two deaths in New England, “including a woman whose frozen body was found in a driveway,” a report said.

NE US Temperature Map – Graphical Forecasts

US Temperature Map – Graphical Forecasts – CONUS Area

“Train equipment froze, cars sputtered, schools canceled classes and cold-weather enthusiasts stayed inside Monday as a bitter blast of below-zero temperatures with potentials for minus 50 wind chills gripped the Northeast.” Source

“Vermont’s largest electric utility says about 24-hundred customers are without power in the Leicester area on the coldest winter morning in the last two years.” Source

“Some of the cold spots in northern New England in the overnight hours included minus-33 in Victory, 32 below in Whitefield, N.H. and 28 below in Fryeburg, Maine. Greenville, Maine recorded a wind chill reading of 46 below zero.” Source

The Alps buried under 6 feet of snow

Vercorin, Switzerland Sees 6ft of Snow in just 3 Days

NC Gov Declares State of Emergency after Snow Storm

Large snow storms have been reported across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and France in the past three days.

Switzerland saw the most snow, On the Snow reported. In Vercorin, Switzerland,  snow topped 180cm. Elsewhere in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France between 105 and 120cm (48 inches) of snow  covered much of the region.

“Another 42-70cm of further snow is forecast within the next five days in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and France: 70cm in Gstaad, Switzerland; 48cm in am Belchen and Todtnauberg, Germany; 47cm in Courmayeur, Italy; and 42-44cm in La Mongie, Piau Engaly, and Saint Lary Soulan, France.” The report said.

In Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia,  the region where the cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf are located, more than 300 accidents were reported in a 12-hour period between Friday night and Saturday morning.

The chaos on the North Rhine-Westphalia roads killed at least one motorist and injured  40  others, while Bavaria’s frozen roads claimed another two lives, and a road accident in Thuringia killed 2 more people.

Flights at some of the airports in both regions were canceled or delayed, as police advised motorists to stay at home.

US Weather

Near Real-Time U.S. Composite Satellite Image.  Credit SSEC. Click image to enlarge.

Meanwhile, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency as more than a foot of snow blankets mountain areas. About 20 emergency shelters opened across the state, Perdue said.

“The storm left roads icy and snow packed across the South, and thousands were without power as ice accumulated. Although police said they had to clear hundreds of wrecks, there were no deaths or serious injuries reported.” WMBF reported.

Some 11 inches of snow covered Asheville, North Carolina, on Friday. The storm that brought the winter weather to the Southeast is now heading toward the Eastern Seaboard.

The lowest temperature in the Lower 48 states ranged from a low of -25ºF degrees at Upson, Wisconsin, to a high of 83ºF degrees at Vero Beach, Florida.

IR Satellite Image. Click image to update.

Weather. Click image to enlarge and update.

Temperature. Click image to enlarge and update.

Predominant Weather. Click image to enlarge and update.

Related Links:

• For other graphical forecasts click  Weather
• For additional satellite images click  Satellite Imagery
• The 10 Worst Snow Disasters in History [The 1st entry on the list concerning the number of soldiers lost from Hannibal’s army is disputed.]