National Climate Report - Annual 2012
Year-to-date Temperature Anomalies

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« National Climate Report - Annual 2012

• Year-to-date Temperature Anomalies
• Year-to-Date Temperature Evolution
• Warmest Seasons and Calendar Year Periods on Record
• Warmest 12-month consecutive periods for the CONUS
• Divisional Temperature Departures and Evolution of Drought
• Known All-Time Temperature Records Tied or Broken
• Summer - Days over 100°F
• Annual Extremes
• 2012 By The Numbers
• 2012 National Top 10 Weather/Climate Events

2012 was the warmest on record for the contiguous United States as a whole, and for many locations across the United States. The following table shows, for about 180 long-term stations, how Jan-Dec 2012 stacks up against normal, and where it ranks among that station's history. The unusualness score is based upon the number of standard deviations difference between the 2012 value and the station's average, based on the station's history.

For a visual presentation, click a station's rank for a "Haywood plot" that shows its cumulative year-to-date temperature for each year it has been reporting. As you read from left to right, a particular year's trace represents the average of all previous days during that year. Because of the relatively few days that go into the year-to-date average during January and February, the plots are often very noisy during these months.

Please note: Because these products focus on daily values, the annual temperatures calculated here are based on the average of the 366 daily values during 2012. The official method for annual temperatures involves a calculation of 12 monthly values, and involves a more robust Quality Control approach. Therefore, although each of years in these records are treated equally by this process for an apples-to-apples comparison, these numbers are not official annual values for these stations, and will likely differ slightly from the official record. The stations used here refer only to the station's current location and may not include information from earlier stations serving these cities in different locations. National Weather Service records often take into account these "threaded" stations.