It Wasn't Just U.S. That Had Incredible Late Dec/New Years Warmth

Map from Pivotal Weather depicts record heat in much of
Europe over the New Years holiday. 

 The world had a dizzying array of record warmth during Christmas week and the first couple of days of January.  

Though there were certainly cold sections of the world, too (I see you, Northern Plains, Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada!)  much of the world was hot, hot hot as 2021 closed and 2022 began.

A lot of the data I have here in this post comes from Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps) on Twitter, which is a great resource to track all these weird records that keep happening. 

Several spots in the United Kingdom had their hottest New Year's Day on record. Scotland had its hottest New Year's Day at 15.9 C or 60.6 degrees F.  Wales also had its warmest first day of the year with 15.6 C or 60 degrees F. 

Paraguay had its all time record high for any date on January 1 as one town soared to 45.6 degrees C, which is a scorching 114 degrees Fahrenheit. The old record was set just last year. 

Also in South America, the closing days of December brought Buenos Aires, Argentina a record high for the month of 40.1 C or 104 F.  It was also the hottest it's been in the Argentinian city since 1999.

On New Year's Eve, some German towns and cities set records for hottest December temperatures as high as 16.9 degrees C or 62.4 F.  Note that due to the normal seasonal downward trend in temperatures, you'd expect the hottest December records to come early in the month. 

Elsewhere in Europe, Bilbao, Spain recorded its warmest December day on the 30th with 24.7 C or 76.5 F.

Back here in the United States, there was a report of a temperature reaching 99 degrees in Falcon Lake, in far southern Texas on New Years Day. If this report verifies, it will be the hottest temperature recorded anywhere in the United States during January. 

As previously reported, Alaska also had its hottest temperature on record for December, and it was the hottest day of any between November through mid-April.  I initially said that reading was 65 degrees, but there was also a report of 67 degrees in or near the same town. 

This is one statistics heavy post, I get it.  But it's an illustration of how heat records are falling so rapidly around the world as the climate warms.

These patches in which a lot of record fall around the world seem to come in waves. This particular wave seems to be over, as fewer big records, if any are falling around the world as we make it throuh this week. 

However, I'm sure there will be plenty more heat records as we make it through 2022.