Following a near-record warm winter, the record warm spring by a wide margin in the U.S. has produced a record warm 6 months of December-May. Preliminary May figures combined with the National Climatic Data Center reports for the previous 5 months yield an estimated average of 48.1°, over 1°F above the old record of 46.9° in 2006. Seven of the top 8 warmest winter-spring periods have now occurred in the last 14 years beginning in 1999.
The charts to the right (click to enlarge), from the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, show the December 2011 to May 2012 average temperature departure from the 1981-2010 climatology and the difference between the 2011-12 average and the corresponding months for 2005-06.
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