33rd Consecutive Warm Week Confirms July Trend to Hottest Month in US History

As posted last week, preliminary reports indicate that July 2012 is likely to be the hottest month since U.S. national temperature records began in 1895. With just 3 days left to go, CapitalClimate analysis of National Weather Service reports from 215 stations across the 48 contiguous states shows that the unadjusted U.S. national average temperature was 3.4° above climatological normal for the week ending yesterday, July 28, down slightly from 3.6° last week. This was up, however, from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) adjusted result of 3.2° in the previous week.

Once again, the month-to-date averages show that nearly every part of the country was warmer than average, with California and the immediate coast of the Pacific Northwest being the notable exceptions. Of the 215 locations, 85% were above average, and all of the 9 NCDC climate regions have been warmer than average for each of the 3 weeks through July 21. (NCDC data through the 28th will be reported on Tuesday.)

Images (click to enlarge):
- Weekly average U.S. temperature departures from normal, weeks ending June 4, 2011 (20110604) through July 28, 2012 (20120728); CapitalClimate chart from NOAA/NCDC data
- Weekly average NWS station temperature departures from normal, week ending July 28, 2012; stations listed alphabetically by state and 3-character station identifier; CapitalClimate chart from NWS data
- Average U.S. temperature departure from normal for July 1-28, 2012 from High Plains Regional Climate Center