Scientists: Winter Warmest on Record
By BRIGITTE GREENBERG
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (March 12) - This winter has been the warmest on record since the
government began keeping weather statistics 105 years ago, according to
scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Analyzing data from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.,
researchers said that seasonal temperatures from December to February
averaged 38.4 degrees Fahrenheit, or 0.6 degrees warmer than the previous
record, which was set just last year.

The scientists attributed the warm temperatures to La Nina, a weather
phenomenon related to cooler than normal temperatures in the eastern and
central Pacific Ocean. The researchers couldn't say Saturday whether the warm
winter had any link to a ``greenhouse effect'' caused by pollution into the
atmosphere.

In fact, the last three winters have been the warmest on record in the United
States - a pattern of warm winters established in 1980, said the scientists.
Since then, 67 percent of the winter seasons have been warmer than the
long-term average.

Many states from the northern Plains to New England set records for the
latest date of their first seasonal snowfall, latest date without a
temperature below freezing, longest snow-free period, or longest period
between subzero temperatures.

However, NOAA spokesman Greg Hernandez said the specific state-by-state
temperature data would not be available until Monday. Only the general trends
for the country were immediately available, he said.

It has been an overall warm winter, despite a brief and sudden cold spell in
the Northeast that in part caused severe shortages of heating oil and soaring
prices in late January and early February in that region of the country.

Researchers said that while eastern states experienced heavy snowfall in the
last two weeks of January, the cold air that came with it was short-lived.
Hundreds of daily maximum temperature records were broken across the country
in February. Many spots from the Northern Plains to New York set or tied
their all-time maximum temperature records for the month.

Every state in the continental U.S. was warmer than its long-term average,
with 21 states from California to the Midwest ranking well above normal.
Oklahoma experienced its warmest winter on record, and Kansas, Nebraska, and
Montana experienced their second warmest.

This winter also has been a dry one, the 16th driest on record. Louisiana
reported its driest winter on record, and Alabama and Mississippi their third
driest. New Mexico and Arizona also experienced much below normal rainfall
for the season. The only regions experiencing a wet season were the northern
and central Rockies and a zone from the central Plains eastward to the Ohio
Valley.

Worldwide, temperatures were the sixth warmest on record, following the two
warmest winter seasons set in the past two years, the NOAA analysis said.

Globally, precipitation was above average through central and northern
Europe, most of South America, southern Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific
Islands, and Australia. Heavy downpours resulted in catastrophic flooding in
Mozambique and other countries in southeastern Africa.