U.S. experiences warmest 12-month period on record
The past twelve months were the warmest twelve months in U.S. history, said NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on Tuesday, in their monthly "State of the Climate" report. Temperatures in the contiguous U.S. during May 2011 - April 2012 broke the previous record for warmest 12-month period, set November 1999 - October 2000, by 0.1°F. The past twelve months have featured America's 2nd warmest summer, 4th warmest winter, and warmest March on record. Twenty-two states were record warm for the 12-month period, and an additional nineteen states were top ten warm. NOAA said that the January - April 2012 period was also the warmest January - April period since record keeping began in 1895. The average temperature of 45.4°F during January - April 2012 was 5.4°F above the 20th century average for the period, and smashed the previous record set in 2006 by an unusually large margin--1.6°F.
Figure 1. The ten warmest 12-month periods in the contiguous U.S. since record keeping began in 1895. Image credit: NOAA/NCDC.
Figure 2. The average temperature of 45.4°F during January - April 2012 was the warmest on record: 5.4°F above the 20th century average for the period, and was 1.6°F above the previous record set in 2006. January - April temperatures have been rising at about 1.9°F per century since 1895. Image credit: NOAA/NCDC.
April 2012: 3rd warmest on record
April 2012 was the third warmest April in the contiguous U.S. since record keeping began in 1895. Ten states had a top-ten warmest April, and no states were cooler than average. But what's really remarkable about April was that eight states--Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia--had average April temperatures cooler than their March temperatures, even though their April temperatures were still above the long-term average for the month. These statistics show just how remarkably warm March 2012 was. Most extreme was Illinois, where April 2012 temperatures ranked in the top 20% for warmest Aprils, yet were cooler than March 2012 temperatures.
Figure 3. Temperature rankings for April 2012 in the Contiguous U.S. Ten states had a top-ten warmest April, and no states were cooler than average. Image credit: NOAA/NCDC.
Figure 4. NOAA's U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI) for January - April shows that 2012 had the most extreme weather on record.
Most extreme January - April on record
NOAA's U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI), an index that tracks the highest 10 percent and lowest 10 percent of extremes in temperature, precipitation, and drought, was 42% during the January-April period, over twice the average value, and the greatest on record. Remarkably, 82% of the contiguous U.S. had maximum temperatures that were in the warmest 10% historically, and 68% had warm minimum temperatures in the top 10%, with records going back to 1910. The previous records were 56% (2000) and 57% (1992) for maximum and minimum temperatures, respectively. The percentage area of the U.S. experiencing top-10% drought conditions during January - April was 19%, which was the 17th greatest since 1910. Extremes in precipitation as computed by the CEI were near average for the January - April period.
Jeff Masters
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What money? Whose money?
But our time is coming...
Agreed
india facts
cia link
Link
When you make 3700 per year your not gonna spend it on a computer
I am really sad to say this, only 6.1% of people in India know about basic knowledge of computer.
And i dont think the tea farmers are in that:/
I respectfully disagree, the entire earth history should be viewed. Only then can a true trend concerning the earth atmosphere can be seen. a 20 to 30 year average is a proverbial drop in the bucket when compared to the thousands to hundreds of thousands of years that these changes happen.
Mike, I don't think he meant it like that. ncstorm is not like that. He is always polite. I believe he was just making a reasonable observation. But what you wrote is quite accurate.
I would automatically assume they did it for the money. That is about the only reason I would hold up a sign. Heck, how do we know those guys are in India or are even tea farmers? The moon landing is another thing that bothers me.
Thank you Grothar for answering that in a respectful way. I just find it hard to believe that a tribe in remote Africa which barely have the necessities of running water would know that the earth is slowly dying because of GW, solar flares, or anything related to GW/Climate Change. Just my opinion though
Do they have a lotta news paper because only 6.1 percent of the pubic is basically computer literate
For your sake, I hope so.
We had decent isolated downpours in this neck of the woods yesterday. Right now there is a nice cool onshore breeze but still only isolated showers south and west of here.
You don't need a computer to learn about AGW...there are various mediums in which they can access information including: radio, television, libraries...etc,
as fellow members stated earlier being poor doesn't equate to being uneducated
May I suggest that you quit listening to me, or anyone else on this blog, and make the efforts to learn for yourself? Acquired knowledge is more rewarding when you have obtained it for yourself.
I will give you some advice that a friend gave me when I said I wanted to learn more about climate change. He suggested that I learn both sides of the topic. (thanks, Nea!) I soon discovered why he suggested this to me. The quickest way to discover the lie is by knowing the truth. ;-) ... Oh, one other thing. When you begin this quest for scientific knowledge, check your emotions at the door. Personal feelings will not fit in any of the equations. I hope this helps.
Tea is the world's most popular beverage (aside from water); it's enjoyed by billions. And Assam (where that photo was taken) is the source of about 25% of the world's tea. You should probably give growers there the benefit of the doubt when it comes to wondering whether they know about their world.
(FWIW, India, for its many problems, is one of the most vibrant, interesting, and colorful nations on earth. Everyone really ought to visit there sometime; it's an amazing place to which I can't wait to return.)
But then does a tea farmer have access to this? Typically you aren't going to be in a city to farm tea I mean it's possible but..
Brooks... northeastern Starr... southeastern Jim Hogg and northern
Hidalgo counties...
At 435 PM CDT National Weather Service meteorologists continued to
detect a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado... 18
miles east of Agua Nueva... moving east at 40 mph.
The tornado will be near...
Encino by 445 PM CDT.
Rachal by 450 PM CDT.
Precautionary/preparedness actions...
This is a dangerous storm! Act quickly. Go to a small interior room
on the lowest floor of a sturdy building... away from windows. Cover
your head with pillows or blankets.
Please report tornadoes or funnel clouds... winds of 58 mph or
higher... hail the size of pennies or larger... and any wind damage to
your National Weather Service in Brownsville by calling 956-504-1432.
Lat... Lon 2695 9807 2666 9816 2679 9854 2697 9852
time... Mot... loc 2135z 291deg 33kt 2681 9830
And why do we have to view the entire earth history? That goes back billions of years. Of course, we do have some information that goes back hundreds of millions of years. CO2 and temperature are well correlated in that data. See this presentation.
edit: and Nea makes a Excellent point about tea, India, and the global economy... they are not in the dark.
The insurance industry recognized that the global climate was changing many years ago. They started talking about how increases in storm strength and ocean levels would impact their business.
That can be (and has been) done. But it's of little direct consequence. Certainly, the Earth has been warmer and cooler in the past. That is not news to climatologists or much of anyone. But beyond its ability to instruct us in the way the climate system works, it is irrelevant to what is happening now.
The central assertion of AGW Theory isn't that we're making it warmer than its ever been on Earth. The central assertion is that we are changing the climate to levels that haven't been experienced in the history of human civilization. It is the stable climate of the last few thousand years that have made that civilization possible. We are changing that. The chances that our chemistry experiment with the atmosphere will work out any other way but detrimentally to civilization is very, very small. It is very highly likely that humans will suffer as the changes unfold.
The Earth can, and will, take of itself.
Likewise, it is our job to take care of ourselves. The best way one can take care of oneself is to face the facts forthrightly and take appropriate action. This is a problem that isn't going to go away on its own.
Um....wealth = access to the internet? Access to television? Access to more time to care and seek out information from other sources besides the leisurely ones?
Spot on
And for most of that time man was not around. CO2 rose and fell even without man. So how can we say beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is caused by man when this has been happening for thousands of years?
Is earth getting warmer, i would agree. Is it completely mans fault that I would have disagree. Should be watch what we do and not pollute as much, definitely agree. Should we listen to the Al Gore types who only want to make money on what is going on? A BIG DISAGREE!!!
Good afternoon Ameister
one could argue that access to these things is the reason this country has a cognitive dissonance on the subject.
You're wecome, nc. The fact is, that in the rest of the world, these people live much closer to the earth and agriculture and have noticed great changes in the past few years.
While it is very true that there are extremely remote tribal areas in Africa and severe poverty in India, that does not necessarily exclude them from acquiring knowledge on these subjects.
Unfortunatly, our view of non-Western cultures is based mostly on TV and movies in which we perceive those cultures as totally unaware of the world around. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The tea plight in the region, which Dr. Masters had mentioned, is not new, but has been ongoing for years, as well as the farmers in Africa. We just don't hear much about it unless we are personally involved.
The odd thing is that next week, I was going to share on my blog, a paper I had done years ago on the Kpelle tribe in Liberia and Guinea. I may still do it.
I just got here. Do you mind if I know what's wrong?
Having access to information is the first step. Ensuring that the information being fed to you is accurate and not pre-filtered is the everlasting struggle after that.
A wealthy person most of the time will be more informed than a non wealthy person,
How does one become with he either inherits it which someone would probably have had a good education or being smart and making/saving money.
America isn't perfect but we have been the closest the world has come to being perfect!
Hey! How's it going, Nigel?
Just because people might not have a lot of money does not mean that they are stupid or poorly informed.
People around the world realize that the planet is warming. In fact, some of the least aware people in the world are in the US. Very few countries have the climate change denier problem that we have in the US. Few other countries have financial interests spreading false information in order to protect their profits.
I'd say the US and Australia are pretty much the worst when it comes to understanding the problem and its causes.
People who live close to nature, who are at the mercy of climate/weather for their way of life are much more observant of changes from the norm. When crops start to fail, when water sources dry up then people start to ask why.
(Levi>see edit to previous comment you quted of me)
Based on what measurements?
GW debates about tea farming knowledge and wether or not a rich person is better off than a poor one
Greenhouse gases varied over time in the past, but the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising at a pace not seen in the past...i would say that is something that we should be worried about
Iggyyyyy
Nice spin there. Hopefully it pushes some of that rain up to the Midtown area so I get some!
Little rain for Pub Fiction and on to Washington for Hughes Hanger
I don't know, I think they use something called "books". I think I may have a few lying around here myself. :)
Besides, I didn't get a home computer until 1990. I think I did pretty well before that.
The storm updrafts are sneaking in the money makers
Here's the thing, ice cores don't go back 4 billion years, how do we know that I'd didn't happen just 500 million years ago etc.
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