7/22/2023 0 Comments Precipitation totals 2012![]() Dry conditions were present along the southern tier of the nation from New Mexico to South Carolina. The Ohio Valley and Northeast were record wet for the period, with seven states within those regions also being record wet. The nationally-averaged precipitation total for the 12-month period was near average, masking regional extremes.Oregon and Washington were the only states with below-average temperatures during the period. Seven states - Delaware, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia - were record warm for the period, while an additional 18 states had 12-month temperatures ranking among their ten warmest. The 12-month period, ending in January, was the sixth warmest such period for the contiguous United States, with warmer-than-average temperatures dominating the eastern two-thirds of the nation.Climate Highlights - Last 12 months (February 2011-January 2012).A list of select January temperature and precipitation records can be found here.Regionally, the West North Central, South, and West regions ranked 3 rd or 4 th highest for the extent of warm maximum temperature extremes. experiencing extremes in warm maximum temperatures was 56 percent, which is the second highest value on record. During January, the USCEI was above average, driven by a large extent in warm maximum temperatures. The United States Climate Extremes Index (USCEI) and Regional Climate Extremes Index (RCEI) are sensitive to extremes in temperature, rainfall, dry streaks, drought, and tropical cyclones on the national and regional scale, respectively.Most of the drought expansion occurred across the Upper Midwest and the western states. experiencing drought of any severity increased from 31.9 percent at the beginning of January to 37.9 percent at the end of the month. was experiencing the worst category of drought, called D4 or exceptional drought, about the same as the beginning of the month. Drought Monitor, as of January 31 st, 2012, about 3.3 percent of the contiguous U.S. This marks the 3 rd smallest January snow cover extent in the 46-year period of record. ![]() According to data from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, the average snow extent during January was 1.0 million square miles, which was 329,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average. Cities across the Northern Plains, Midwest, and Northeast had below-average snow fall during the month a result of warmer and drier than average conditions.Many locations along Florida's Atlantic coast, which usually average over 2.5 inches of precipitation during January, had little to no precipitation during the month. The Southeast was also drier than average, where Florida had its eighth driest January on record. Below-average precipitation was observed for the Central Plains, where Kansas had its third driest January, and Nebraska its eighth.Texas had not experienced two consecutive months with above-average precipitation since January-February 2010. The Southern Plains and the Great Lakes were wetter than average for the month, with Texas having above-average precipitation for the second month in a row. Precipitation totals were mixed across the United States during January.In contrast to the contiguous United States being much warmer than average, several towns across Alaska had their coldest average January temperatures on record - Nome (-16.6 degrees F), Bethel (-17.3 degrees F) McGrath (-28.5 degrees F), and Bettles (-35.6 degrees F).This surpassed the previous record of 59 degrees F for the city, set on January 28 th, 1906. Many locations across the Northern Plains exceeded all-time warm January maximum temperature records during the month, including Minot, North Dakota, which reached 61 degrees F on January 5 th.Florida and Washington were the only states with temperatures near average, and no state was cooler than average. Nine states - Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming - had January temperatures ranking among their ten warmest. ![]()
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