A new report published by Climate Central, The Heat is On, shows that the pace of global warming in the US has accelerated dramatically in the past 40 years. It coincided with the time when the effect of greenhouse gases began to overwhelm the other natural and human influences on climate at the global and continental scales. Over the past four decades 17 states warmed more than half a degree F per decade. Although the dramatic acceleration occurred everywhere, the top 10 states warmed about twice as fast as the bottom 10 states. This difference is partly due to natural variability but air pollution could also be a factor. The states that have warmed the most — whether you look at the past 100 years or just the past 40 — include northern-tier states from Minnesota to Maine and the Southwest, particularly Arizona and New Mexico. Places that have warmed the least include Southeast states, like Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, along with parts of the central Midwest, like Iowa and Nebraska. Feeling the heat yet, folks?
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