Spring Temperature Seventh Warmest on Record

Environment News Service (ENS)

Global Spring Temperature Seventh Warmest on Record

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, June 16, 2008 (ENS) - It may not appear so if you were shivering through the cool, wet spring of the Pacific Northwest or shoveling out from under the April 1 blizzard that dumped snow on much of the northern Midwest, but globally this spring ranked seventh warmest since worldwide recordkeeping began in 1880, according to an analysis by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville.

In addition, NOAA's latest analysis shows that May 2008 was the eighth warmest May on record. May brought warm temperatures to North America, melting most of the remaining snow cover by the end of the month.

Idaho meadow June 2008 (Photo by Terry Gray)

By the end of May, nearly all snow cover in the Rockies had melted, except at the highest elevations. Snow also remained in a few areas in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maine, and West Virginia.

Most lakes in southern Canada were ice-free by May 31, yet in northern Canada, much of James Bay and the Hudson Bay retained their ice cover at the end of the month.

For the Northern Hemisphere, spring 2008 brought the third least extensive spring snow cover, but across North America, snow cover extent was slightly above average.

The extent of spring 2008 snow cover over Eurasia was the lowest on record for any spring in the 42 year historical satellite record.

Despite the warm spring globally, several American cities and ski resorts set new seasonal snowfall records during April.

Madison, Wisconsin set a new seasonal record snow total of 101.4 inches on April 8, breaking the previous record of 76.1 inches from the 1978-79 season. Numerous ski resorts in the West reported record breaking snowfall this year, as did parts of northern Maine.

Worldwide, temperatures were warmer than average this spring. Globally, the combined land and ocean surface temperature for spring 2008 was 0.94 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century mean of 56.7 degrees and ranked seventh warmest based on the 1880-2008 record.

The global land surface temperature for spring was 1.87 degrees above the 20th century mean of 46.4 degrees and tied with 2000 as third warmest.

The National Climatic Data Center shows that the global ocean surface temperature for spring was 0.59 degrees above the 20th century mean of 61.0 degrees and ranked as the 10th warmest.

For May 2008, the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.81 degrees above the 20th century mean of 58.6 degrees and ranked eighth warmest.

The global land surface temperature for May was 1.26 degrees above the 20th century mean of 52.0 degrees and ranked seventh warmest.

The global ocean surface temperature for May was 0.65 degrees above the 20th century mean of 61.3 degrees and ranked 10th warmest.

Continued weakening of La Ni�a, the cold phase of the El Ni�o-Southern Oscillation, occurred during May. The ENSO conditions are expected to trend toward neutral conditions during the next two months, forecasters predict.

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