NOAA - June-August Second-Warmest Such Period On Record In United States

[hatrack]

The blistering heat experienced by the nation during August, as well as the June through August months, marks the second warmest summer on record according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, N.C. The persistent heat, combined with below-average precipitation across the southern U.S. during August and the three summer months, continued a record-breaking drought across the region.

The average U.S. temperature in August was 75.7 degrees F, which is 3.0 degrees above the long-term (1901-2000) average, while the summertime temperature was 74.5 degrees F, which is 2.4 degrees above average. The warmest August on record for the contiguous United States was 75.8 degrees F in 1983, while its warmest summer on record at 74.6 degrees F occurred in 1936. Precipitation across the nation during August averaged 2.31 inches, 0.29 inches below the long-term average. The nationwide summer precipitation was 1.0 inch below average.

EDIT

Excessive heat in six states – Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana – resulted in their warmest August on record. This year ranked in the top ten warmest August for five other states: Florida (3rd), Georgia (4th), Utah (5th), Wyoming (8th), and South Carolina (9th).The Southwest and South also had their warmest August on record.

Only nine of the lower 48 states experienced August temperatures near average, and no state had August average temperatures below average.

Wetter-than-normal conditions were widespread across the Northeastern United States, which had its second wettest August, as well as parts of the Northern Plains and California. Drier-than-normal conditions reigned across the interior West, the Midwest, and the South.



EDIT

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110908_auguststats.html

[ChandlerJr]

1. Heat waves, drought and the Great Recession

sure is looking like the 1930's again isn't it. All we need now for history to repeat itself is to have WW111 to break out. Where will it be this time?

[msongs]

2. previous record set 75 years ago? random event nt

[NickB79]

3. 75 years ago, you had massive expanses of denuded land (think DARK soils)

Millions of acres of land, plowed up and completely barren of anything green, growing and cool, sitting there absorbing solar radiation day after day after day, must have had a noticable impact on average temperatures, much in the same way the melting Arctic ice exposes dark ocean waters, creating a positive feedback loop.

In contrast, while the plants have mostly died in the south-central US due to the drought, they are at least still there to provide some cooling effect (even dead grass absorbs less solar radiation than open soil).

If the land had been laid bare in the same fashion this year as we had in the 1930's, we would have smoked the old record.