Major Natural Disasters United States 2024: Winter was the warmest on record in the contiguous U.S. since the late 19th century, and was particularly warm from parts of the upper Midwest into the Northeast.
Story by Jonathan Erdman The Weather Channel
Meteorologists group seasons into tidy three-month buckets that more closely follow average temperatures, rather than astronomical seasons that follow the changing sun angle. Meteorological winter follows the typically coldest months of the year from December through February.
Except for some, it didn’t feel all that cold this winter. Here are the highlights we noticed in the preliminary data.
A national winter record falls: December 2023 through February 2024 was the Lower 48’s warmest winter in 130 years, according to preliminary data posted by Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider on Friday.
Brettschneider said that topped the previous record warm winter from 2015-16 by 0.75 degrees. In the realm of temperature data averaged over three months over the entire Lower 48 states, it’s significant to top a previous record by a few tenths of a degree. So this winter’s reading in the U.S. was an absolute pummeling of a previous record.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHl_KTNaQAEDEp6
Warmest winter for three Midwest states: In preliminary data, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin each had their record-warmest winter in data since the late 19th century. Seven other states – Illinois, Iowa, Maine, New York, North Dakota, Ohio and Vermont – had their second-warmest winter.
Dozens of cities, too: At least 30 cities also tied or set their record-warmest winter, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center (SERCC).
The majority of these were in the Midwest and Northeast, including Albany, New York; Des Moines, Iowa; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They also included typically frigid cities such as Caribou, Maine; Fargo, North Dakota; International Falls, Minnesota; and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
A few western cities also had a record-warm winter, including Fresno, California, and Medford, Oregon.
Some clobbered previous records: This winter’s mean temperature in Fargo, North Dakota, was over 4 degrees warmer than their previous record from 2011-12.
Looking at their temperature trace, only a period in mid-January and a couple of days near the end of February appeared to be colder than average.
According to the SERCC, most of the record-warm winter cities from the Great Lakes to the Dakotas were 8 to 14 degrees warmer than average this winter.
February or May?
Many of those same cities also had a record-warm February, punctuated by a late-month heat wave that shattered over 50 all-time record highs for any winter month.
First-on-record winter highs in the 70s were recorded in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Omaha, Nebraska, and Springfield, Illinois, hit 80 degrees for the first time in winter as well. These high temperatures were more typical of May, rather than February.
Least February snowpack in 20 years: Given all this warmth, it’s no surprise that maintaining snow cover across the country was a challenge.
Averaged over the entire month, February 2024 had the smallest snow cover over the contiguous U.S. in 20 years, according to data from NOAA.
For a few days over Presidents’ Day weekend, snow cover ticked above average from a fresh blanket of Midwest and Ohio Valley snowfall.
But as warmer air returned, most snow cover east of the Rockies melted away. By Feb. 26 – the first of the two warmest days of the record late-winter heat wave – less than 14% of the Lower 48 had snow on the ground. The snow cover map resembled one you might expect in late April or May, not late February.
Ice-free lakes: The warmth also left Great Lakes ice cover at a 51-year low for mid-February, including an ice-free Lake Erie and just a few small bays of Lake Superior with any ice.
Why so warm: One reason was the strong El Niño that had been in place; warmer winters are typical across the northern tier of states during a strong El Niño.
There was also a lack of persistent blocking patterns – such as the Greenland block – that pull cold air from Canada and lock it into the U.S. for longer than a few days. Instead, blocking high pressure was common over central and eastern Canada, keeping the Midwest and Northeast persistently much warmer than usual.
The lack of snow and ice cover allowed more of the sun’s energy to heat the ground and air above it, as opposed to melting snow or ice.
Finally, winter has been the fastest-warming season in most of the U.S. since 1970, according to a study from Climate Central. They found that especially true in the Great Lakes and Northeast. That includes shorter cold snaps, less extreme cold and more unusually warm winter days now than before 1970.
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Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter with a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then a Master’s degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics.
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In His Service,
Night Watchman
Paul Rolland
Night Watchman Ministries
Make Your (7) Decision for Christ NOW!!!!!!! Time is Up!!!!!!!
Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:
The ABCs (7) of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)
- (7) Admit/Acknowledge/Accept that you are sinner. Ask (7) God’s forgiveness and repent of your sins.
. . . “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).
. . . “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).
. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).
B. Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe that (7) Jesus Christ is who He claimed to (7) be; that He was both fully God (7) and fully man and that we are (7) saved through His death, burial, and resurrection. (7) Put your trust in Him as your (7) only hope of salvation. Become a son (7) or daughter of God by receiving Christ. (7777777) 7×7
. . . “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:15-17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).
C. Call upon His name, Confess (7) with your heart and with your lips (7) that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.
. . . “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10).
. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (John 1:8-10).
. . . “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2).
. . . “In this was manifested the love of god toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:9, 14-15).
. . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10).
. . . “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).
. . . “Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).
. . . “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16).
. . . “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts: 4:12).
. . . “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).
. . . “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
. . . “But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).
True Church / Bride of Christ Spared from God’s Wrath:
Romans 5:8-10. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 5:9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Jeremiah 30:7. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.