March 2012: warmest in U.S. history
Not only was March 2012 the warmest March in the U.S. since record keeping began in 1895, it was also the second most extreme month for warmth in U.S. history, said NOAA yesterday, in their monthly "State of the Climate" report. The average temperature of 51.1°F was 8.6 degrees above the 20th century average for March, and 0.5°F warmer than the previous warmest March in 1910. Of the more than 1,400 months that have passed since the U.S. weather records began in 1895, only one month--January 2006--had a larger departure from its average temperature than March 2012. A remarkable 25 states east of the Rockies had their warmest March on record, and an additional 15 states had a top-ten warmest March. Only four states were cooler than average, with Alaska being the coldest (tenth coldest March on record.)
Figure 1. Temperature rankings for March 2012 in the Contiguous U.S. Twenty five states set records for warmest March in the 118-year records (red colors.) Image credit: NOAA.
March 2012: most daily records broken of any month since July 1936
A wunderground analysis of weather records from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center temperature record database reveals that more daily high temperature records were broken in March in 2012 than for any month except July 1936, going back at least 100 years. Fully 11.3% of all daily high temperature records for the month of March in the U.S. are now held by the year 2012, for the 550 stations in NOAA's National Climatic Data Center database that have weather records extending back at least 100 years. The only month in U.S. history holding a higher percentage of daily temperatures records is July 1936. That month holds 14.4% of all the U.S. high temperature records for the month of July. That month occurred in the great Dust Bowl summer of 1936, the hottest summer in U.S. history.
Summer in March 2012: records not merely smashed, but obliterated
Among the 15,000 daily records for warmth set in March 2012 were 21 truly astonishing ones: cases where the low temperature for the day beat the previous high temperature for the day. It is quite rare for a weather station with a 50+ year period of record to break a daily temperature record by more than 10°F. During "Summer in March, 2012", beating daily records by 10° - 20°F was commonplace, and NOAA lists 44 cases where a daily record was broken by more than 22°F. Extraordinarily, four stations broke a record for the date by 30°F or more. Canada holds the most surreal record of this nature during the "Summer in March, 2012" heat wave: Western Head, Nova Scotia hit 29.2°C (85°F) on March 22, breaking their previous record for the date (10.6°C in 1969) by 18.6°C (33.5°F.) Canada also had several stations break their all-time warmest April temperature records in March.
Last 3 months and 12 months were the warmest on record
The previous 12-month period (April 2011 -March 2012), which includes the second hottest summer (June-August) and fourth warmest winter (December-February), was the warmest such period for the contiguous United States. The year-to-date period (January - March) was also the warmest on record. NOAA's U.S. Climate Extremes Index, an index that tracks the highest 10 percent and lowest 10 percent of extremes in temperature, precipitation, and drought, was 39 percent, nearly twice the long-term average and the highest value on record for the January - March period. The predominant factor was the large area experiencing extremes in warm daily maximum and minimum temperatures.
Analyzing the "Summer in March, 2012" heat wave
Dr. Martin Hoerling of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder has posted a thorough analysis of the heat wave, which he calls, "Meteorological March Madness 2012". He explains that the event was probably a natural phenomenon, one that was predicted more than a month in advance by NOAA's long-range CFS model. A similar, though not as intense heat wave occurred in March 1910. However, he notes that the approximate 0.5 - 1°C warming in the Ohio Valley/Midwest U.S. in recent decades--due to human-caused emission of heat trapping gases like carbon dioxide--has significantly increased the odds of major heat waves occurring. He speculates that the odds of a 1-in-40 year heat wave in the Midwest may have increased by about 50% due to human-caused global warming, but that we really don't know how much global warming may have increased the odds of the March 2012 heat wave, saying "This issue of estimating reliable statistics of extreme, rare events continues to be a matter of active research." He estimates that human-caused global warming likely increased the intensity of the March 12 - 23, 2012 heat wave by about 5 - 10%, and concludes by saying, "The probability of heatwaves is growing as [human-caused] warming continues to progress. But there is always the randomness."
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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More like 99.9%.
maybe we go from super spring to super strange
hah maybe I'm being conservative...
Meanwhile, more hail...
Shh. Let's not completely curb the wishcasters' hopes.
It's been 9 years since a TS formed in April. It would be another great sight to see.
It'd be even more impressive if it ended up making landfall. That I would like to see.
I've heard a TS or greater has made landfall here in Florida in all months except either December or January. Not saying such will happen, but it would be pretty cool to witness.
Pretty sure it's out sadly enough. Folks in Rock county love good landfill fire. For awhile they were trying to report it as a grass fire despite the smell of burning plastic and a giant black billowing cloud over the area.
Looks like another hail storm south east of Amarillo.
More storms also training back over the areas north and east that were hit by the hail storms earlier.
Tornado in California
4 foot haildrifts in OK
8.6 & 8.2 quakes Indonesia
5.8 Oregon Coast
6.5 Mexico
RAISE THE DOOMCON LEVEL!!!!!
it said 3.75 and 3.50inch max hail.
100% severe.
Um, PS. What happens when SPC prob is 45%, or 60%? Torcon doesn't go that high.
Hmmmm.
:)
This means one thing
ALIENS
This is unreal ... lol
LOL.
Guy asked "Don't they mean inches".
Definitely not.
The radar has estimated "rainfall" at well over 10 inches in that area now, and it obviously was severely under-estimating it.
I guess we may never know the actual amount amount of hail accumulation, as it would be difficult to tell the difference between "legit" totals in a flat location vs drifts and pile-ups by the time you start getting that much...
The southbound side is still blocked and closed.
Radar estimated "rainfall" total now stands at 11.6 inches in the main area hit by the hail storm N. of Amarillo.
Thailand's tsunami~ .2ft
Province of Aceh, Indonesia tsunami~ 3.5ft
Sri Lanka tsunami~ .1ft
Cocos (Keeling) Islands tsunami~ .3ft
Giant wave took down a boat off New Zealand. One survivor.
Flooding in Philippines killing crops & forcing families from their home.
Total Petrochemicals reported a check valve failure that led to a spill at its 232,000-barrels-per-day Port Arthur refinery in Texas, according to a filing with state pollution regulators. The filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality identified three tanks as the sources of the spill. However, the filing did not specify the product released.
Piloted by Yuri Gagarin
The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961.
2012-04-12 02:29:41 UTC
Scroll down to first post for large
Unreal ...yet another
Longitude -66.9822
Magnitude 4.6 mb
Depth 15 km
UTC Time 02:29:50 UTC Thursday April 12th, 2012
Location Gulf Of Maine, Eastern North America
Author teleMb
also the 6.5 in Guerrero, MX
and the near 6.0 offshore Oregon coast
wth??? is going on today?
Im gonna fear the 11th day from now on every year. Or's its just coincidental
(March 11, 2011 Japan 9.0)
(9/11)
(today the 11 for the Indonesia 8.6 quake)
I'd take piles of hail over the grapefruit size stuff we got in April 2004. Talk about apocalyptic!
Really? It was many years ago I heard this, memory is definitely a little off. I remember hearing all but one month for some reason, and it's kinda coming back to me that January was not the month.
..er, It's "Flare", and that was a CME or a "Coronal Mass Ejection"
Partially Earth Directed,..and most def not a "Flare".
Someone told me once not to drive in hail near Dumas, now I guess I know why they phrased it that way.
2012-04-12 03:29:22 UTC
I don't know about anyone else, but I'd call that about 4 FEET of hail!
If you have data that is different please share it.
PNSSTO
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA
800 PM PST WED APR 11 2012
LOCAL STORM SURVEY REVEALS AN EF1 TORNADO 4 MILES WEST OF
FRENCH CAMP, CALIFORNIA AROUND 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON IN
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
WIND SPEED: ESTIMATED WINDS OF 90 MILES PER HOUR.
LOCATION: NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF HOWARD ROAD
AND SOUTH ROBERTS ROAD, APPROXIMATELY
4 MILES WEST OF FRENCH CAMP.
TIME: AROUND 1PM.
STORM TRACK: EYEWITNESSES STATED THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN
IN A GROVE OF VERY SMALL WALNUT TREES ABOUT
1 TO 1.5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF HOWARD ROAD AND
ROBERTS ROAD DOING LITTLE DAMAGE. THE TORNADO
TRACKED TO THE NORTH-NORTHEAST ABOUT 1 MILE AND
TOTALLY DESTROYED A 40 FT BY 25 FT GARAGE, TIPPED
OVER AN EMPTY TRACTOR TRAILER, AND REMOVED SEVERAL
SHINGLES FROM THE ROOF OF THE NEARBY HOME. NO
DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED NORTH OF HOWARD ROAD.
INJURIES: NONE
EF SCALE
EF RATING 3 SECOND GUSTS (MPH)
0 65-85
1 86-110
2 111-135
3 136-165
4 166-200
5 OVER 200
not bad for CA
A youtube users commenting on one of the videos said her husband was there in Dumas trying to drive home.
She said it was FEET of hail.
So I guess that's the radar, TWC, some storm chasers, the highway depart, and another independent eye-witness, plus this photo of the wall of ice...
just nuts...
Current Solar Activity and Heliospheric Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) Conditions
Dunno, and I wonder about the depth showing 0.0 or surface as well.
I've been seeing rumors of an early subtropical storm for the last several days on this blog...but this one is gaining quiet a bit of attention. What date do the models say it will begin? Which storm system presently over the US is supposd to become the subtropical storm?
Seems the biggest known weather event, plus the tornadoes.
It will start to take shape late on the 15th, and my guess is the front over the western Atlantic. The upper flow over this portion of the world seems largely zonal at the moment, especially below 30N. A more amplified regime is forecast to develop. This flow pattern might act to allow the southern end of this front to slowly push eastward, rather than exit completely into the north Atlantic shipping lanes.
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