While there have been brief hiccups here and there, temperatures have been anything but chilly this year across large stretches of the U.S. As a matter of fact, the U.S. is heading for the warmest year on record.
Fresh off the press, NOAA reports that November was the 20th warmest on record for the contiguous U.S. with an average temperature of 54.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The most noticeable area for warmth was the West where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming had one of their top ten warmest Novembers on record.
The East didn`t cash in on the warmth. Instead, the Ohio Valley to the East Coast tied for the tenth coolest November on record with temperatures 3.5 degrees below average.
Average precipitation was 1.19 inches, making last month the eighth driest November on record.
Looking back at the three months of meteorological fall, above average temperatures encompassed the West with cooler than average temperatures for the Ohio and Southeast.
Even more important, the year so far (January to November) has been the warmest 11 months on record across the U.S. If the average temperature is greater than 54.3 degrees Fahrenheit for the entire year, that would surpass 1998 as the warmest in recorded history for the U.S. Also, the year so far has been the 12th driest on record with precipitation 3.08 inches below the long-term average of 26.91 inches.
Besides the U.S., the Arctic and Northern Hemisphere experienced a few major changes this year. Arctic sea ice reached record low in September. In June, record low snow cover was observed in the Northern Hemisphere and the same happened in Eurasia in May. Also, about 97 percent of the Greenland ice sheet melted in just one day in July.
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