With all the news stories about Boston’s incredible snowfall and the frigid conditions in the Northeast, you’d think that the US is having a much colder than normal winter. But USA Today points out that while the Northeast is having one of its snowiest and chilliest winters on record, out west they are basking under incredible warmth and setting many record daily high temperatures (4,074 as of the story’s writing). Of course this is not good for the West, particularly for agricultural areas, because the warmth is coming with sunny skies and no rain, making the 4-year drought worse in a time period when they should be recharging their water supplies for the next growing season. For the country as a whole, so far this year has been quite a bit above normal in temperature, and the National Climatic Data Center estimates that it will end up as the 6th warmest winter on record.
By comparison to other parts of the country, here in the Southeast we’ve been a bit cooler than normal and drier than normal as well, today’s rain notwithstanding, but not at the same intensity as the Northeast. You can read the full story here. Unfortunately, there is no sign of this crazy weather pattern shifting any time soon.
