Remarkably Dry and Warm Winter Due to “Most Extreme Configuration of the Jet Stream Ever Recorded”

by Jeff Masters, reposted from WunderBlog

Flowers are sprouting in January in New Hampshire, the Sierra Mountains in California are nearly snow-free, and lakes in much of Michigan still have not frozen.

It’s 2012, and the new year is ringing in another ridiculously wacky winter for the U.S. In Fargo, North Dakota [Thursday], the mercury soared to 55°F, breaking a 1908 record for warmest January day in recorded history. More than 99% of North Dakota had no snow on the ground this morning, and over 95% of the country that normally has snow at this time of year had below-average snow cover.

Departure of snow depth from average on January 6, 2011. More than 95% of the country that normally has snow at this time of year had below-average snow cover (yellow and orange colors.) Image credit: NOAA.

High temperatures in Nebraska yesterday were in the 60s, more than 30° above average. Storm activity has been almost nil over the past week over the entire U.S., with the jet stream bottled up far to the north in Canada. It has been remarkable to look at the radar display day after day and see virtually no echoes, and it is very likely that this has been the driest first week of January in U.S. recorded history.

Portions of northern New England, the Upper Midwest, and the mountains of the Western U.S. that are normally under a foot of more of snow by now have no snow, or just a dusting of less than an inch. Approximately half of the U.S. had temperatures at least 5°F above average during the month of December, with portions of North Dakota and Minnesota seeing temperatures 9°F above average. The strangely warm and dry start to winter is not limited to the U.S–all of continental Europe experienced well above-average temperatures during December.
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In short, what would you like Climate Progress to cover in 2012 that we aren’t already covering.

CP tries to be responsive to readers.  You wanted more coverage of clean energy and solutions, so last year we brought on reporter Stephen Lacey to fill that gap, and  now CP has some of the best, most reposted and retweeted content on clean energy in the blogosphere or MSM.

We won’t be hiring anyone new this year, but are very much interested in what you’d like to see more coverage of.

Also, one thing CP tries hard to do is be ahead of the curve, to dive into subjects before the MSM catches on to them — as we have with shale gas, the connection between global warming and extreme weather, food insecurity and Dust-Bowlification, the Keystone XL pipeline and protests against it, to name but a few.  What do you think are next big energy and climate stories that aren’t getting enough attention?

A penny for your cyber thoughts.

And a belated holiday cartoon from Moms Clean Air Force.