NOAA - U.S. temperatures for April third warmest on record

Posted on May 11, 2012

Past 12 months and first third of the year were warmest nation has experienced

Several warm periods across the contiguous U.S. during April brought the national average temperature to 55°F, 3.6°F above average, marking the third warmest April on record. These temperatures, when added with the first quarter and previous 11 months, calculate to the warmest year-to-date and 12-month periods since recordkeeping began in 1895.

The 12-month period of May 2011-April 2012 has a nationally-averaged temperature 2.8°F above the 1901-2000 long-term average, while the January-April 2012 months were 45.4°F, 5.4°F above the long-term average.

On the heels of the warmest March for the U.S., warmer and drier than average temperatures continued for much of the nation with some states in the Ohio Valley having a small, but still above average, dip in temperatures.

Note: The April 2012 Monthly Climate Report for the United States has several pages of supplemental information and data regarding the unprecedented early 2012 temperatures.

U.S. climate highlights — April

• Warmer-than-average temperatures were present for a large portion of the nation during April with nine states in the Central and Northeast regions having April temperatures ranking among their ten warmest. Above-average temperatures were also present for the Southeast, Upper Midwest and much of the West.
• Eight states — Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia — had average April temperatures cooler than their March temperatures. However, these temperatures were still above the long-term average for the month.
• Statewide precipitation totals were mixed during April, with wetter than average conditions across the West Coast and Northern and Central Plains. Drier than average conditions were present in Texas and along the Gulf Coast, stretching northward toward the Great Lakes. The national precipitation average was 2.23 inches, 0.20 inch below average.
• 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 with snow near the end of April.
• According to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, there were 228 preliminary tornado reports during April, above the 1991-2010 average for the month. The majority of the tornadoes occurred during an April 14^th outbreak across the Central Plains. Tornado activity during April 2012 was in stark contrast to April 2011, when over 750 tornadoes tore across the Southeast, causing significant damage and loss of life.