October 2010: Yet Another Warm Month in U.S.

Following September's record heat in some areas, October 2010 was another warm month in the U.S. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) preliminary analysis, posted within the last hour, shows that warmer-than-average temperatures were widespread across the country. In fact, not a single state was classified below normal, "while more than half were above-average." Of all the climatological divisions within the contiguous 48 states, only the extreme southeastern corner of Oklahoma was as much as 1°F below average. Overall, it was the 11th warmest October in 116 years of records. The NCDC reports:

• The average temperature for October was 56.9 degrees F (13.8 degrees C), which is 2.1 degrees F (1.2 degrees C) above the 1901-2000 average, the eleventh warmest on record in the United States. Warmer-than-normal conditions prevailed throughout the western U.S. and into the Midwest. Of the nine climate regions, none had below normal temperatures and only two, both along the Eastern Seaboard, experienced an average temperature that was near normal.
• No state had below normal average temperatures, while more than half were above-average. Wyoming had its fourth warmest October and Montana its seventh.

For the latest 6 months (May-October), it was the 5th warmest on record, and "31 states, mostly east of the Rockies, had average temperatures among their top ten percent historically."

For the 10 months of 2010 to date,

Record warmth persisted throughout the year in the Northeast, where the average year-to-date temperature was 3.0 degrees F (1.6 degrees C) above the 20th century average. Five northeastern states (New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island) were having their warmest year on record to date. The East North Central climate region was also abnormally warm for 2010 to date, 2.5 degrees F (1.4 degrees C) above the long-term average.