Heat Wave: March 2012 sets thousands of new records

Sign thermometer, Marion, Ohio, Summer 1938. Ben Shahn, American (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC)

The temperatures last month were the warmest recorded in the 117 years the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) been keeping track of such things.

Every state in the nation experienced at least one record warm daily temperature during March. According to preliminary data, there were 15,272 warm temperature records broken (7,755 daytime records, 7,517 nighttime records). Hundreds of locations across the country broke their all-time March records. There were 21 instances of the nighttime temperatures being as warm, or warmer, than the existing record daytime temperature for a given date.

You can watch the short animation showing the temperature patterns in the continental US here. (Except for a couple of days at the beginning of the month, my corner of the country wasn’t affected.)

And I suggest this for the soundtrack.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.