Past 12 months and first third of the year were warmest nation
has experienced Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) reports that several warm periods across
the contiguous U.S. during April brought the national average
temperature to 55°F, 3.6°F above average, marking the third
warmest April on record. These temperatures, when added with the
first quarter and previous 11 months, calculate to the warmest
year-to-date and 12-month periods since recordkeeping began in
1895. January-April was the warmest such period on record for
the contiguous United States, with an average temperature of
45.4°F, 5.4°F above the long-term average. Twenty-six states,
all east of the Rockies, were record warm for the four-month
period and an additional 17 states had temperatures for the
period among their ten warmest. On the heels of the warmest
March for the U.S., warmer and drier than average temperatures
continued for much of the nation with some states in the Ohio
Valley having a small, but still a