2011-2012 Winter named 4th Warmest in North American History
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For many living in the lower 48 states, winter felt unusually warm. Now, it's official.
Today, March 7, the U.S. National Climatic Data Center named this winter — collectively December, January and February — the fourth-warmest for the lower 48 states since record-keeping began more than a century ago. The record for the warmest winter remains with 2000.
Above-average temperatures were most notable in the Northern Plains, Midwest, Southeast and Northeast, according to the Center. Twenty-seven states had winter temperatures that ranked among their 10 warmest. New Mexico was the only state that had winter temperatures below the 20th-century average.
In spite of record cold in January, the rest of the winter was kinder to Alaska, bringing the state to just below its seasonal average. (Because Alaska is outside the lower 48 states, its data did not figure into the 4th-warmest ranking.)
The same goes for Canada as well. The most noteworthy, would be on the Canadian prairies where they only saw one major cold snap, and record-breaking warm temperatures. Calgary saw 19 days above 10C (50F) this winter, when its winter normals should be around -4C (25F), including 2 days as warm as 15C. (60F)
Winnipeg didn't even drop below -30 this winter, and parts of March have been warmer then places far south, like Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Manitoba is currently also on track to record its warmest March in history.
