The Weekend is Upon Us! Happy St. Patrick's Day on Saturday
Friday, March 16, 2007
NOWCAST - Nice day today but clouds and a chance of rain looms ever so close to us over the weekend. Temperatures above seasonal normals. Next week still looks unsettled according to latest computer models. Click side panel for latest forecast.
Here is the latest in their own words from NOAA concerning the past winter weather in the United States and globally:
The December 2006-February 2007 winter season temperature was marked by periods of unusually warm and cold conditions in the U.S., but the overall seasonal temperature was near average, according to scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The global temperature was the warmest on record for the December-February three-month period.
U.S. Temperature Highlights
The winter temperature for the contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) was 0.6°F (0.3°C) above the 20th century average of 33.0°F (0.6°C). The winter season got off to a late start in much of the country. December was the 11th warmest such month on record and spring-like temperatures covered much of the eastern half of the nation during the first half of January. Upper level wind patterns brought unusually cold weather to the southern Plains and much of the West in January and snow and ice extended as far south as Arizona, southern California, and south Texas. More typical winter conditions finally arrived in the eastern U.S. by late January and a period of colder than normal temperatures persisted through Presidents Day weekend.
February as a whole was 1.8°F (0.9°C) below the 20th century average of 34.7°F (1.5°C), colder than two-thirds of the February's in the 113-year record for the contiguous U.S. Thirty-six states in the eastern two-thirds of the nation were cooler than average, while Texas and the eleven states of the West were near average to warmer than average.
Global Highlights
The global land and ocean surface temperature was the 6th warmest on record in February, but a record warm January helped push the boreal winter (December-February) to its highest value since records began in 1880 (1.30°F/0.72°C above the 20th century mean). The presence of El Niño conditions contributed to the season's record warmth, but the episode rapidly weakened in February as ocean temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific cooled more than 0.5°F/0.3°C and were near average for the month.
Separately, the global December-February land-surface temperature was the warmest on record while the ocean-surface temperature tied for second warmest in the 128-year period of record, approximately 0.1°F (0.06°C) cooler than the record established during the very strong El Niño episode of 1997-1998.
For the complete report, see NOAA.
For the detailed winter report December-February for the US with graphs and charts, click HERE.
Here is NOAA's latest Spring Temperature Outlook for April through June for the US. (Graphic courtesy of NOAA)
And of course we can't do without then precipitation outlook as well for the same period. It doesn't forebode good news for southern California already suffering from the driest winter on record. (Graphic courtesy of NOAA)
Solutions to Global Climate Change? Read this.
Andrew Marshall, a 19 year old political science student at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia (BC) writes his view on global climate change. Read his paper here.
-- posted by Pat Timm @ 1:04 AM,
