Old Man Winter sweating in record warmth

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The United States is basking in record warm weather this winter.

The nationally averaged temperature was 39.94 degrees Fahrenheit for November through January, 4.3 degrees above the 1895-2001 long-term average, said Jay Lawrimore, chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch of the government’s National Climatic Data Center.

The previous record for the same three-month period — 39.63 degrees Fahrenheit — was in 1999-2000. Since 1976, the nationally averaged November-January temperature has risen at a rate of 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, the data center reported Thursday.

In the November-January period the unusual warmth stretched from as far west as Montana and to the East Coast. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont had their warmest November to January period in history, and as many as 18 states from the Plains to the Northeast recorded their second warmest November-January, according to the climate center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A lack of snow cover contributed to short-term drought conditions in the northern Plains. Absence of snow has affected many winter festivals in the northern United States.

Overall, snow and rainfall was near normal averaged across the country. A dry area stretched from Florida to Maine, worsening drought conditions along the East Coast.

Connecticut and Maine experienced their driest November-January on record, and nine other states — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia and South Carolina — were much drier than normal.

In addition to the United States, worldwide temperatures were also at record levels, the agency reported, focusing that finding on January.

Temperatures averaged across land areas were the warmest on record, or 2.43 degrees Fahrenheit above the long-term January average. Ocean temperatures ranked as third warmest, or 0.74 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1880-2000 mean. The report did not list the long-term averages, only the amount January differed from them.

Scott Stephens, a meteorologist at the center, said a high-pressure ridge in the upper atmosphere contributed to the readings in the United States by pulling warm air north into the country.

Asked if global warming, a concern of many environmentalists, was to blame, Stephens was cautious. "There are those that will make that argument. I’m not going to make that argument," he said.