U.S. Has Warmest Winter

The United States is basking in record warm weather this winter.

The national average temperature was 39.94 degrees for November through January, 4.3 degrees above the 1895-2001 average, said Jay Lawrimore, chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch of the government’s National Climatic Data Center.

The previous record for the same three-month period--39.63 degrees--was in 1999-2000. Since 1976, the nationally averaged November-January temperature has risen at a rate of 1.2 degrees per decade, the data center reported Thursday.

In the November-January period, the unusual warmth stretched from Montana to the East Coast. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont had their warmest November to January, and as many as 18 states from the Plains to the Northeast recorded their second warmest November-January, according to the climate center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A lack of snow cover contributed to short-term drought conditions in the northern Plains.

In addition to the United States, worldwide temperatures were also at record levels, the agency reported, focusing on observations recorded in January.

Average temperatures across land areas were the warmest on record, or 2.43 degrees above the long-term January average. Ocean temperatures ranked as the third warmest, or 0.74 degrees above the 1880-2000 mean.