Americans just lived through the hottest year ever recorded, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported recently, Matt Pearce notes at the LA Times. NOAA reported that the US also just experienced its third-warmest April on record. This is the warmest 12-month period since recordkeeping began in 1895, the agency reported. NOAA said that for the period from May 2011 to April 2012, the nationally averaged temperature was about 56 degrees, about 3 degrees higher than the 20th century average. The higher temperatures haven’t hit every region equally. The Pacific Northwest actually saw cooler-than-average temperatures over the past year, according to NOAA data. Much of California was also cooler than normal; Southern California had an average year. But record averages for the year scorched central Texas — which saw a horrific drought last year — the upper Midwest, and much of the Northeast. The last time the planet had a month cooler than the 20th century national temperature average was February 1985. April makes it 326 months in a row. Get the drift? It’s getting hotter.
It really is hot in here: US has warmest 12 months on record
Los Angeles Times – 4 days ago
NOAA reports that the nation just concluded its hottest year-to-date on record. For that matter, last month was the third-warmest April on record. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-nn-na-hottest-year-on-record-20120515,0,2999672.story
