Published: December 13th, 2012
By Climate Central
Last week NOAA announced that 2012 was “likely” to be the warmest year on record in the 48 states, based on temperatures through November. At some point, however, likelihood turns into certainty. Does a warm December push the nation to the point where it is impossible for 2012 to be anything but the warmest year ever recorded in the U.S.?
To answer that question Climate Central did the math, and the results are in.
There is a 99.99999999 percent chance that 2012 will be the hottest year ever recorded in the continental 48 states, based on our analysis of 118 years of temperature records through Dec. 10, 2012.
-----
Exactly how cold would it need to be not to break the record? Temperatures would have to average 14.76°F across the continent for the rest of December — a holiday season colder than any ever recorded.
But that is not going to happen. So far this December the mean temperature in the contiguous U.S. has been 44.13°F. The average temperature for 117 years of previous Decembers is 33.08°F.
-----
No comments:
Post a Comment