Wild December pushes US weather close to records

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday that last year was the second warmest and third wettest in 121 years of record-keeping for the lower 48 states. A total of 28 states were much warmer than average in 2015, including Alaska, California and Idaho, which each had their second warmest year on record.

“2015 really blew away the competition” for December temperatures, said Jake Crouch, a NOAA climate scientist, during a teleconference with reporters.

In Toledo, the month of December marked Toledo’s warmest December in 126 years.

Temperature rankings for each state for December 2015.

Florida, Montana, Oregon and Washington had their warmest year on record and eleven other states had 2015 as one of the top five warmest years on record.

The NOAA report also said there were 10 weather and climate disaster events that caused losses above $1 billion each. First place goes to 2012, with a 55.3-degree average temperature for the year, NOAA said.

It was also a relatively wet year.

“This is the 19th consecutive year the annual average temperature exceeded the 20th century average”. Texas and Oklahoma had their wettest years on record.

In all, 14 states from the southern Rockies to the Mid-Atlantic coast were classified as much wetter than average, according to NOAA.

“We live in a warming world and a warming world is bringing more big heat and more big rain events to the United States”, Arndt said during a NOAA press conference.

President Obama has made climate change a major focus of his second term, and he’s promised to put the USA on the path of cutting emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.

Of the 15 warmest years on record, 14 have occurred in the 20th century.

Global figures come out later, but 2015 will likely rank as the hottest. The U.K. Met Office has said that with the strong El Nino in place, 2016 could end up besting 2015, which would mean three years in a row of record warmth.

This article is reproduced with permission from Climate Central.