In my hometown of Hudson, WI, last month was unusually and noticeably warm. We normally open our backyard pool around Memorial Day. This year, it was open and in use a good 3 weeks earlier.
As it turns out, this type of experience was common.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released its temperature and weather data for last month, and the contiguous United States had its warmest May since record keeping began in 1895.
Some highlights, straight from NOAA’s May, 2018 data set:
- The average contiguous U.S. temperature was 5.2 degrees F above the 20th century average, and beat by 0.7 degrees F the previous May record set in 1934 (a year you may recall as the beginning of the infamous Dust Bowl).
- Every single state in the lower 48 had an above average temperature in May, 2018.
- Eight states — Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Virgina — had record warm average temperatures.
- 42 states had average temperatures much above the May average.
- May, 2018 marked the current end of the longest 3-year, 4-year, and 5-year periods on record.
These are the most recent monthly temperature records that, along with recent annual temperature records (2016, 2017) have been set as part of a generally rising global temperature trend that has been observed since the Industrial Revolutions (for more information, see my detailed article).
#rescuethatfrog