It Wasn't Just Vermont: Nation Had Warm Winter

This, believe it or not, is a weird map. (Click on it to make it bigger
and easier to see).  It shows how each state's overall winter
temperature ranked compared to the coolest and hottest. No
state had a cooler than average winter. Almoat always, there
is at least one region that is cool every season. Not this winter.

As I mentioned several days ago, we in Vermont got a break this year with a mild winter. This, despite a late autumn that was ominously cold, snowy and icy.

It wasn't just us that had that kind of winter.  It started rough in many spots.  Out in Ohio, it turned out that the coldest days of the winter hit before the winter solstice well before Christmas. Since then, it's been toasty, aside from a few "meh" cold spells.

Officially, the Lower 48 had its 6th warmest winter on record, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.  Winter here is defined as the period from December 1 through February 29.

Winter in the United States had been on pace to be the warmest on record after a remarkably coast to coast bout of  toastyness in December and January.  However, February was only the 34th warmest out of 126 years of record.  Still among the warmest one-third of Februaries, but not record breaking

That brought this winter's ranking down to sixth place. .

The odd thing about national February temperatures is that almost no part of the nation was cooler than normal, aside from Colorado and Wyoming, which were slightly on the cool side. Alaska did have a significantly colder than normal February, though.

For the winter as a whole, every state except Alaska was warmer than normal.

Usually, even in the warmest winters, or any season for that matter, a few parts of the nation end up being colder than normal.  (In particularly cold months or season, at least a small part of the nation are usually warmer than average). This certainly didn't happen this year.

By my count 25 states- half the nation, had one of the top 10 warmest winters on record. Vermont is included amont those 25 states. The Green Mountain State barely made it, scoring  its 10th warmest winter on record.

The nation as a whole was wetter than normal during February, too. That was mostly led by the Southeast, which had one its wettest Februaries on record.  The contrast was California, which was very dry.  San Francisco had its first rainless February since the Civil War.

Climate figures for February for the entire world are due out in a week or so, which means I'll update you then. It's widely expected February, 2020 will be among the hottest on record.  The first month ofthe year was the world's hottest January on record.