By the middle of May, the coverage in drought was significantly reduced across Florida, but areas of severe drought remained in southwestern Florida and coastal Alabama. There were 3,843 severe weather reports across the Southeast region during the year, which is over 130 percent of the median annual frequency of 2,936 reports during 20002019. Non-thunderstorm wind gusts of up to 70 mph (31 m/s) were recorded in New England and on New Yorks Long Island, with reports of downed trees and wires. Asheville, NC (18692020) observed its highest annual count of 157 days with measurable precipitation, while Miami, FL (18952020) tied its highest annual count of 30 days with at least 1 inch (25 mm) of precipitation. Beckley, West Virginia, recorded its hottest March day since 1896 with a high temperature of 85 degrees F (29 degrees C). The tornadoes and wind gusts caused structural damage and downed numerous trees. Wetter-than-normal weather during December helped alleviate drought and abnormally dry conditions in much of the Northeast. Long-term weather stations reported record warmth in Oregon, California, and New Mexico. This topped the 12-week stretch in early 2019 with no abnormally dry conditions. These six regions differ spatially from the nine climatic regions of the National Climatic Data Center. Numerous fallen trees, mudslides, and river flooding were reported in southwestern Puerto Rico, according to local emergency management officials. For instance, in Maryland, East Branch Herbert Run at Arbutus rose more than seven feet (2 m) in an hour and the Patapsco River at Elkridge rose 9.6 feet (2.9 m) in over an hour. This was the eighth straight year above the 1981-2010 normal for the region. This value will be evaluated by the State Climate Extremes Committee later in 2021 to determine if a state record for lowest mean sea level pressure will be established. This ranked 2020 as the 12th warmest since 1895, and the warmest year since 2012. The U.S. Drought Monitor released on July 30 showed 29 percent of the Northeast in a severe or moderate drought and 42 percent was abnormally dry. This years severe weather season ended below the 5- and 10-year averages for the High Plains region, in terms of tornado, hail, and wind reports, according to the Storm Prediction Center. In August, every state except for Arkansas and Oklahoma experienced warmer than normal temperatures, while every state except for Oklahoma and Texas experienced wetter than normal conditions. Other sites saw only a trace, but for Islip, New York, it made May a snowier month than February. Searching by zip code will yield no results if there is no weather station within that zip code, but you can easily expand your search to a city or county. Dry conditions prevented farmers from planting crops, and for those that were planted, moisture stress led to slowed growth and reduced yields. Only Junes of 2015 (fourth warmest), 2016 (second warmest), 2019 (warmest), and 2020 (third warmest) were warmer and had a global temperature departure above +0.90C (+1.62F). In addition, Interstate 81 near Binghamton, New York, was shut down for several hours due to disabled vehicles. Boulder, Colorado: Highest seasonal snowfall total on record with 152.0 inches (386 cm) (period of record 1893-2021), Grand Forks, North Dakota: Tied for highest 1-day total precipitation of 4.26 inches (108 mm) for the month of June, June 30 (period of record 1893-2021), Casper, Wyoming: Earliest autumn snowfall on record with 2.3 inches (6 cm), September 7 (period of record 1939-2021), Cheyenne, Wyoming: Highest 1-day total snowfall of 14.0 inches (36 cm) for the month of October, October 25 (period of record 1883-2021). Several other locations in central and northern California reported the second or third warmest year on record. The 2020 annual precipitation totals indicate that precipitation for the year was above normal for much of the Southern Region, with Tennessee experiencing its sixth-wettest year on record while the region as a whole received an average annual precipitation total of 328.59 inches (8346.19 mm), making it the eleventh-wettest year on record. The global temperature departure for February 2021 was +0.64C (+1.15F) the coolest February since 2014. Every state experienced a warmer than normal winter, with every state experiencing a top-20 warmest winter on record while Tennessee experienced its sixth-warmest winter on record. All state rankings are based on the period spanning 1895-2020. Based on preliminary analysis, the average annual temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 54.4F, 2.4F above the 20th century average. All state rankings are based on the period spanning 1895-2020. There were road closures, some evacuations, and reports of water in houses. Preliminary damage estimates in Delaware exceeded $20 million. The anomalies themselves represent departures from the 20 th century average temperature. There were no areas of below-average annual temperatures observed across the Lower 48 during 2020. The maps below show average temperature (left), rainfall (middle) and sunshine duration (right) compared to 1991-2020, across the UK last year. Non-thunderstorm wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph (18 to 27 m/s) were common, with some of the highest wind gusts reaching 82 mph (37 m/s) near Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey; 80 mph (36 m/s) in Milton, Massachusetts; 79 mph (35 m/s) in Dewey Beach and Indian Beach, Delaware; and 75 mph (34 m/s) in Moosic, Pennsylvania. Prior to this, there had only been four February tornadoes in Maryland between 1950 and 2019. This years snow season (2020-2021) kicked off with several early snowfalls, starting in September. North Carolina had its second-wettest year on record during 2020 and Virginia was third wettest. This dryness eased by mid-February, with the Northeast becoming free of abnormal dryness for the first time since July 2019. Baker City, Oregon logged a record low 3.36 in (85.34 mm), 33% of normal, for the year to accompany the record high temperatures. It encompassed nearly the entire West, Northern and central Plains, Great Lakes and much of the East, including. In Alaska, annual temperatures were above normal along the North Slope, in western coastal Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands. All nine Midwest states were above their 1981-2010 normal by 0.9 to 1.8 degrees F (0.5 to 1.0 C). Portions of New England were designated as natural disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, making some farmers eligible for federal assistance. Several tropical systems affected the Northeast this year, with Tropical Storm Fay, Tropical Storm Isaias, and Tropical Storm Zeta being particularly noteworthy. Approximately four percent of Californias nearly 100 million acres were consumed by wildfires in 2020, which is the largest wildfire season on record for the state. All state rankings are based on the period spanning 1895-2020. To the west, West Virginia saw flood-inducing heavy rain, with the greatest totals approaching 4 inches (102 mm). The Central states also experienced a historic severe weather event the. Highly-localized flooding was also noted on western Long Island and in northeastern Massachusetts. This . Hartford, Connecticut, tied its coldest June temperature on record on June 1 with a low of 37 degrees F (3 degrees C). The center of low pressure for this storm is the lowest known pressure in or around Alaskan waters. Additional data received and processed after the release of this summary may result in small differences for annual values and ranks. For instance, the Perkiomen Creek at Graterford, Pennsylvania, reached 19.14 feet (5.83 m), nearly a foot (0.30 m) higher than its previous record from 1935. Precipitation ranged from 87 percent of normal in Connecticut and Massachusetts to 126 percent of normal in Delaware, which had its seventh wettest year. All six states experienced warmer than normal temperatures, with Louisiana experiencing its sixth-warmest spring on record. Nome logged its 15th warmest year on record since 1907 at 29.4 F (-1.4 C), 2.1 F (1.2 C) above normal. The statewide average annual temperatures are as follows: Arkansas - 61.15 degrees F (16.19 degrees C), Louisiana 68.18 degrees F (20.10 degrees C), Mississippi 65.31 degrees F (18.51 degrees C), Oklahoma 60.70 degrees F (15.94 degrees C), Tennessee - 59.34 degrees F (15.19 degrees C), and Texas 66.81 degrees F (19.34 degrees C). Just a week later, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a storm system dropped as much as 6 inches (152 mm) of rain on the region, with several locations having one of their 10 wettest December days on record. Drought stress also caused leaves to change color and drop earlier than usual in parts of the Northeast. Precipitation was primarily wetter than normal, although Arkansas and Texas were slightly drier than normal. For instance, a roof was blown off a store in Cape May, New Jersey, and a cow barn was tossed into a power pole in Rockland, Massachusetts. Oklahoma experienced two months that were top-10 wettest on record (fifth-wettest March on record, sixth-wettest January on record). In May, cooler than normal conditions prevailed across every state except Texas, while precipitation was higher than normal for every state except for Mississippi. Conditions worsened during September, with moderate and severe drought expanding and the introduction of extreme drought in New England for the first time since February 2017. In some Maine locations, a fungal disease turned stressed grass black and dry conditions caused a fungus that kills the pupa of the browntail moth caterpillar to grow too late this year, allowing the caterpillar, which defoliates trees and causes health issues, to spread farther into central Maine. For example, irrigation and labor costs exceeded $50,000 at a Massachusetts farm and were around $30,000 at a New Hampshire farm. The highest annual precipitation total for any station (excluding CoCoRaHS) across the region was recorded in Highlands, which surpassed its previous wettest year on record (2018) by 11.04 inches (280 mm). Every state with the exception of Louisiana had at least one month that was top-10 wettest on record, and two states (Mississippi and Oklahoma) had one month that was top-5 wettest on record. The drought that was already in place combined with a failure of the monsoon and well above normal temperature were the primary climate enablers of fire in the Colorado River Basin this year. In many fields in southern Alabama, Hurricane Sally blew down the cotton crop when bolls had yet to open. While cotton producers in the Florida Panhandle continued their harvest, some noted that cotton yields were particularly poor this year from excessively wet weather. Power outages affected millions in the region with many outages lasting days or even weeks in some cases. A few northern Maine farmers initiated the process to allow for emergency haying and grazing on conservation reserve. Flooding in southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and portions of New Jersey and Maryland led to road closures, stranded vehicles, and water rescues. Collectively, the past eight years . Water restrictions were in place for hundreds of locations in New England, as well as some locations in New York and Pennsylvania. The maximum wind speed was estimated at 85 mph, and three injuries were associated with the microburst. On January 11th, a thunderstorm wind gust of 75 mph (34 m/s) in Greene County, AL blew a very large tree down onto the water main in Forkland, and many thousands of gallons of water spilled out of the water tower. The average global land and ocean surface temperature for January 2022 was 0.89C (1.60F) above the 20th century average of 12.0C (53.6F). A total of 22 tornadoes were spawned by Isaias, including a rare EF-3 tornado that caused 2 fatalities and 14 injuries in Bertie County, NC on August 4th. Climate Extremes Index (USCEI) for 2020 was 80 percent above average and ranked as seventh highest in the 111-year record. Extreme (D3) and exceptional (D4) drought covered about 22 percent of the CONUS on December 29 the largest extent of D3 and D4 drought since August 2012 (24 percent). For the year, there were areas in all six states that averaged between 1 to 2 degrees F (0.56 to 1.11 degrees C) above normal, while parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee averaged 2 to 3 degrees F (1.11 to 1.67 degrees C) above normal. With 1.1 inches (28 mm) of snow on the 25th, Asheville, NC (18692020) observed its fifth highest snowfall on Christmas Day since records began 151 years ago. Annual precipitation totals were well above average across the Southeast region, with widespread areas of exceptional wetness occurring in every state and Puerto Rico. Sunrise & Sunset with Twilight and Daylight Saving Time in 2021 in Denver. Most of the drought is focused on the central islands of Molokai, Maui, Kahoolawe, and Lanai with severe and extreme drought present. The Roanoke River crested almost 6 feet (1.8 meters) above flood stage on May 21st, sending water rushing onto some roadways and making them impassable. There were scattered areas of below normal temperatures across Arkansas that averaged 0 to 1 degrees F (0.00 to 0.56 degrees C) below normal. Despite the snowfall, the fall season was dry, overall, and the majority of the region went into winter with dry soils. From an agricultural perspective, drought caused many impacts, especially for livestock and winter wheat producers. In the HadUK-Grid observational dataset that goes back to 1884, all of the Top 10 warmest years for the UK have occurred since 2002. Based on NOAA's Residential Energy Demand Temperature Index (REDTI), the contiguous U.S. temperature-related energy demand for 2020 was 31 percent of average and the 7th lowest value in the 126-year period of record. The tornado, the first of the year in New England, snapped and uprooted trees. The Northeast had its third warmest year on record with an average temperature of 49.5 degrees F (9.7 degrees C), 2.2 degrees F (1.2 degrees C) above normal. On December 24th and 25th, an extensive squall line associated with a vigorous cold frontal passage produced convective wind gusts exceeding 45 mph (20 m/s) along coastal portions of the region, including 49 mph (22 m/s) at Charleston International Airport, SC, 59 mph (26 m/s) at Brunswick Golden Isles Airport, GA and Tampa International Airport, FL, 61 mph (27 m/s) at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, VA, and 64 mph (29 m/s) at Billy Mitchell Airport on Cape Hatteras, NC. A few small pockets of moderate drought developed in north-central Puerto Rico during late December. Fires were a major issue across Colorado and Wyoming this year, with the three largest fires in Colorados history burning this summer and fall. Thousands of Christmas tree saplings died and some mature trees dropped excessive amounts of needles or turned yellow in New England. There were numerous closed roads, submerged vehicles, and dozens of water rescues. Severe drought was introduced in Maine and New York, while moderate drought expanded and abnormal dryness encompassed nearly half the region. Preliminary estimates indicated millions of dollars in damage from flooding along the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Many extremely large fires with rapid spread rates occurred this year with California, Oregon, and Colorado all having set records for the largest fires in the states history. Seven of the 12 landfalling storms produced at least $1 billion in damage, breaking the old record of four separate billion-dollar tropical cyclones in both 2004 and 2005. Alaska experienced its coldest first two months of the year in 2020 and coldest winter (December 2019 - February 2020) since 1999. On November 11th and 12th, the interaction of moisture surging northward from Tropical Storm Eta and an approaching cold front produced 3 to more than 8 inches (76 to more than 203 mm) of rainfall across much of the Carolinas and Virginia. Drought conditions also dried up or reduced water supplies that some firefighters rely on to fight fires. The lowest known mean sea level pressure on record in Alaska was recorded on the 31st on Shemya Island at Eareckson AFB and registered at 924.8 millibars (27.31 inches of mercury). Drought conditions continued to worsen across much of the region during the fall as precipitation deficits mounted. Earth's global average surface temperature in 2020 statistically tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record, continuing a long-term warming trend due to human activities. Hurricane Iota was the second-strongest November hurricane on record for the Atlantic and was the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record to occur so late in the calendar year. Wilmington, Delaware; Huntington, West Virginia; and Charleston, West Virginia, set/tied their greatest number of March days with measurable precipitation. Hurricane Zeta made landfall near Cocodrie, LA on October 28th, with a wind gust of 91 mph (41 m/s) reported in Mobile, AL. Binghamton also tied its lowest maximum temperature for May with a high of 35 degrees F (2 degrees C). Warm weather in February contributed to low snowfall totals in southern and eastern parts of the region. Temperatures were below normal in the Interior, Southcentral, and Southeast regions of Alaska. Severe drought touched parts of the five western-most states and extreme drought affected parts of southwestern Missouri and western Iowa. A total of 299 tornadoes (8 unrated, 123 EF-0s, 125 EF-1s, 31 EF-2s, 11 EF-3s, 1 EF-4) were confirmed across the Southeast during the year, which is the sixth highest annual tornado count for the region since modern records began in 1950. Apples were smaller than usual and yields were down in parts of New England. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), drought coverage expanded throughout much of 2020 with a minimum CONUS extent of 9.6 percent occurring on February 18 and maximum coverage of approximately 50 percent on December 22. Based on the 2-digit Hydrologic Unit Code watersheds, the California region had the lowest SWE at 76% of normal. On February 6th, a slow-moving low pressure system produced over 5 inches (127 mm) of rainfall across portions of western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. For a small area of northwest Oregon, western Washington, and northern Idaho, drought conditions improved with removal of drought for these locations. During June, abnormal dryness expanded to include parts of every state except New Jersey and moderate drought was introduced in parts of New England and New York.