![]() On the statewide level, 2016 was a year of temperature and precipitation extremes. The Northern Rockies and Plains climate region and the South climate region were each second warmest on record, and each about a half degree Fahrenheit cooler than 2012. However, the average coverage of drought for the year was 19.0 percent, the smallest since 2010.Īnother result from the persistent ridge in the East was continuous seasonal warmth that culminated in the warmest year on record for the Southeast region. Generally speaking, the ridging along the West and East coasts forced the majority of the storms to track along the northern tier states, resulting in a record annual precipitation averaged across the Upper Midwest region.įor the CONUS as a whole, the overall drought footprint increased from 18.4 percent, as analyzed on January 5, 2016, to 22.5 percent as analyzed on January 3, 2017. During the fall in the Southeast, several locations had no precipitation for more than 50 consecutive days. The Southeast drought began in late April and reached peak intensity at the end of November. The Northeast drought began in June and peaked in coverage in mid-November however the most intense drought categories (D3-D4) peaked at the end of September. Outside of the long-term drought in the West, drought intensified and expanded in two distinct areas during the summer: one in southern New England and adjacent parts of the Northeast, and one in the Southern Appalachians and adjacent parts of the Southeast. In the summer and fall, upper-level ridging in the East starved systems of moisture and stunted crop development. The total sum of losses from these four inland flooding events exceeded 15 billion dollars. Additionally, catastrophic flooding occurred over the course of a week in Louisiana during August. In June, a historic flash flood event dumped up to ten inches of rain during a 12-hour period in West Virginia. Several additional torrential local downpours and historical flooding events occurred in central and eastern Texas in the spring. In mid-April, nearly 10 inches of rain fell in Houston, Texas, the second highest one-day total for the city. Unstable and slow-moving air masses led to intense downpours in separate events across the South and Mid-Atlantic during the spring and summer months. According to the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS), which combines patterns of snow accumulation and population, this was the fourth most impactful snowstorm since 1950. In the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, a late-January winter storm broke all-time snowfall records in several cities. ![]() Therefore, exceptional drought conditions remained throughout the year much of the West, and California in particular. Additionally, the abnormal warmth in the late winter/early spring period prematurely melted some of the early season snowpack gains across the Sierra. A strong and persistent ridge in the West limited the number of storms that reached central and southern California where drought conditions were worst. Regardless, the regional drought footprint did contract, from 45.2 percent at the beginning of the year to 21.5 percent by the end of the year, owing largely to improvements in the Northwest and northern California. While above-normal precipitation was common across the West, it generally fell short of values often observed during strong El Niño winters. Late-winter snowpack values across the region were near to above average for most locations. The year started with one of the strongest El Niños on record ushering in Pacific moisture and much needed drought relief to parts of the West, in the form of high elevation snowpack and valley rains. Since 1895, precipitation across the CONUS has increased at an average rate of 0.16 inch per decade. This was the 24th wettest year on record. Precipitation averaged across the CONUS in 2016 was 31.70 inches, 1.76 inches above the 20th century average. Nationally, it was the third warmest average maximum (high) temperature for the annual period, a full degree cooler than the record set in 2012. Six states were warmest on record for minimum temperature. Nationally, the average minimum (low) temperature was 43.1☏, the warmest on record, exceeding the previous value (42.9☏ in 2012) by about 0.2☏. Since 1895, the CONUS has observed an average temperature increase of 0.15☏ per decade. ![]() The last year with a below-average temperature was 1996. This marks the 20th consecutive year that the annual average temperature for the CONUS was above the 20th century average. This was the second warmest year for the CONUS, behind 2012 when the annual average temperature was 55.3☏. ![]() In 2016, the contiguous United States (CONUS) average temperature was 54.9☏, 2.9☏ above the 20th century average.
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