State of the Climate - April 2012

The State of the Climate for April has been released and here are a few of of the highlights for April:

• The nationally-averaged temperature was 55.7 degrees F, 3.6 degrees F above average — the third warmest on record. The precipitation averaged across the nation was 2.23 inches, 0.20 inch below average.
• The warmer-than-average conditions, which have persisted for several months, limited snowfall over a large portion of the country. According to the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, the April snow cover extent across the contiguous United States was the third smallest on record, despite the late season Nor’easter which impacted the Northeast near the end of April.
• According to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, there were 228 preliminary tornado reports during April, which is above average. The majority of the tornadoes occurred during an April 14^th outbreak across the Central Plains. However, tornado activity during April 2012 paled in comparison to April 2011, when over 750 tornadoes wreaked havoc across the Southeast, causing significant damage and loss of life.

January-April 2012 was the warmest such period on record for the contiguous United States, with an average temperature of 45.4 degrees F, 5.4 degrees F above the long-term average. Twenty-six states, all east of the Rockies, were record warm for the four-month period, and an additional 17 states had temperatures for the period among their ten warmest.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of May 1^st, 38.2 percent of the contiguous United States was experiencing drought conditions, an increase from the 31.9 percent at the beginning of 2012. Drought worsened across the Northeast, Southeast, and the interior West, while beneficial precipitation significantly improved drought conditions across the Southern Plains and western Gulf of Mexico.

And finally.... The 12-month period (May 2011-April 2012), which includes several warm periods for the country — second hottest summer, fourth warmest winter, and warmest March — was the warmest consecutive 12-month period for the contiguous United States. Twenty-two states were record warm for the 12-month period, and an additional 19 states were top ten warm. The 12-month running average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 55.7 degrees F, which is 2.8 degrees F above the 20^th century average.

You can read the entire report here at DaculaWeather.com

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