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So far, 2012 USA’s warmest year on record

Warmest U.S. Spring On Record: NOAA, PLanet Ark, 08-Jun-12,  Deborah Zabarenko,  So far, 2012 has been the warmest year the United States has ever seen, with the warmest spring and the second-warmest May since record-keeping began in 1895, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Thursday.

Temperatures for the past 12 months and the year-to-date have been the warmest on record for the contiguous United States, NOAA said. The average temperature for the contiguous 48 states for meteorological spring, which runs from March through May, was 57.1 degrees F (13.9 C), 5.2 degrees (2.9 C) above the 20th century long-term average and 2 degrees F (1.1 C) warmer than the previous warmest spring in 1910.

Record warmth and near-record warmth blanketed the eastern two-thirds
of the country from this spring, with 31 states reporting record
warmth for the season and 11 more with spring temperatures among their
10 warmest.

“The Midwest and the upper Midwest were the epicenters for this vast
warmth,” Deke Arndt of NOAA’s Climatic Data Center said in an online
video. That meant farming started earlier in the year, and so did
pests and weeds, bringing higher costs earlier in the growing season,
Arndt said.

“This warmth is an example of what we would expect to see more often
in a warming world,” Arndt said.

More long-lasting heat waves, record-high daytime temperatures and
record-high overnight low temperatures are to be expected in a warming
world, said Jake Crouch of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center…..
CARBON DIOXIDE MILESTONE…….Another Arctic measurement related to
climate reached a milestone this spring, NOAA reported: the
concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide at Barrow, Alaska, reached
400 parts per million, the first time a monthly average for this
greenhouse gas passed that level at a remote location.

The level of 450 ppm is regarded by many scientists and environmental
activists as the upper limit the planet can afford if global
temperature rise is to be kept to within 3.6 degrees F (2 C) this
century. Some advocates suggest 350 ppm is a more appropriate
target……. http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/65613

June 9, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, USA