 |
| Virtually all of the Lower 48 had a warmer than normal year in 2025. Those little white spots were close to average. Overall, it was the fourth warmest year on record. |
The report from NCEI came out the same time as their global report for 2025. That report, as I posted about Thursday. indicated the the world had its third warmest year in 2025 and that the past three years have been by far the world's warmest on record.
"Temperatures were above average nationwide, with the most pronounced warmth across the western third of the country. The Rockies and Westward region, stretching from the West Coast through the Rocky Mountains, recorded its warmest annual temperature on record."
The United States might have had its warmest year on record, or close to it, had we not experienced January, 2025 the way we did. It was the coldest since 1988.
But things quickly heated up from there, as NCEI explains.
"This was followed by the second-warmest spring on record, driven by widespread warmth across the Southeast, where Florida recorded its second warmest May. Summer heat included a late June heatwave affecting over 100 million people ad record warm July overnight temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic.
Anomalous warmth persisted into the latter half of the year, as meteorological fall ranked as the nation's third warmest. Following a November that saw five states set monthly records, nine states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming - recorded their warmest December on record."
In the end, Nevada and Utah had their warmest year on record. Including those two states a dozen had one of their four warmest years on record. Here in Vermont, the state as a whole had its 18th warmest year. As always, the relative temperatures within the Green Mountain State varied. Burlington had its ninth warmest year.
The United States as a whole had a drier than normal year. The lower 48 had an average of 29.19 inches of precipitation, which was 0.73 below average.
No state had an extremely high or low amount of precipitation. Kentucky had its ninth wettest year on record and Florida had its 11th driest. The Plains were a little on the wet side, and the East Coast and Southwest were somewhat on the dry side.
STORMS/DISASTERS
The United States suffered through 23 weather/climate disasters in 2025 that cost at least $1 billion, according to Climate Central.
These 23 disasters cost a total of $115 billion, which is above the inflation-adjusted average of $67.6 billion. Only five other years were more expensive, with 2017 being the worst, with $405.2 billion in damage.
Tornadoes
The United States had a preliminary count of 1,559 tornadoes in 2025, which is above the average of 1,225 twisters. The past year had the fifth highest tornado count on record.
Despite the extra tornadoes, and the strong ones that occurred in 2025, the death toll from twisters was close to average. Sixty-eight people died in tornadoes in 2025, compared to an average of 71.
North Dakota had quite a tornado year in 2025. The first EF-5 tornado - the strongest you can get - since 2013 touched down near Enderlin, North Dakota on June 20. North Dakota also had the most tornadoes in a single year with 72 of them. The old North Dakota record for a single year was 61 in 2010.
Hurricanes/Tropical Storms
The Atlantic basin had 13 named storms in 2025, which is a smidge under the average. For the first time since 2015, no hurricanes made landfall in the United States, which was a welcome break from a string of disastrous hurricane years.
We were especially lucky since many of the hurricanes that did form were unusually strong. Three Category 5 hurricanes formed, which is the second most on record. There was also Category 4 Gabrielle.
Easily the worst hurricane of the bunch was Melissa. A dropsonde recorded a wind gust of 252 mph at an elevation of 820 above the ocean as the hurricane was approaching Jamaica. That was a world record, exceeding the previous dropsonde record of 248 mph in Typhoon Mega in the western Pacific Ocean in 2010.
DECEMBER IN REVIEWDecember was incredibly warm in the West, with nine
states having their hottest December on record.
The Northeast was a little on the cool side.
As mentioned above, the notable news about the December was the huge area in the West that had its hottest December on record. Overall, last month in the Lower 48 was the fifth warmest on record, NCEI tells us.
Most months this year had very few areas in the United States that were cooler than normal However, in December, chilly air in the Northeast slightly offset the heat in the west. This helps explain why December was only the fifth warmest, and not the warmest.
Nine northeastern states were cooler than most months in the 131 years of record. But none were particularly close to the coldest on record. The closest to the record was Pennsylvania, which had its 36th coolest December, so not that impressive. Here in Vermont, we had our 42nd chilliest December out of the past 131 years. Again, not an impressive record.
The West was impressive, however.
Three of the nine western states (Utah, Nevada and Arizona) that had their hottest December broke the previous record by more than 2.5 degrees. It's exceeding rare to break a previous hottest month record by one degree or more.
Also three states - Utah, Wyoming and Colorado - were more than 10 degrees warmer than average. Again, that's an incredible feat.
Precipitation in the Lower 48 averaged out to 2.01 inches, which is 0.33 inches below average. Like temperatures in December, precipitation was maldistributed.
The central and southern Plains and most of the Gulf Coast were much drier than they should have been. Oklahoma had its driest December on record. Oklahoma City, for example, had just 0.09 inches of rain in December. They should have had about 1.8 inches.
Seven other states in the parched region had one of their top ten driest Decembers on record.
On the opposite extreme, Washington, Montpelier, Idaho and Wyoming had one of their top ten wettest Decembers on record.
No comments:
Post a Comment