Once Again, a Record-Hot Winter for California

As Yogi Berra famously said, “it’s déjà vu all over again.”  While much of the eastern U.S. digs out from yet another snow and ice storm, the West has capped off a decidedly toasty winter.

In fact, California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington each saw their hottest winter on record, according to data released Friday by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

For California, this winter eclipsed the previous record set just last year — a symptom of the area of high pressure off the West Coast that has stubbornly stayed in place and kept temperatures elevated.  It also serves as a potential sign of how the average temperature for the year may turn out, not welcome news for a state parched and in drought.
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Of course, California isn’t the only state suffering from unusually warm weather and drought.  Eight states in the West had at least a top 10 warmest winter, including the five that saw their record hottest.  Several western cities, including Reno, Nev., Fresno, Calif., Portland, Ore., Sacramento, Calif., Tucson, Ariz., and San Francisco, also had chart-topping winters.

And while the eastern part of the country shivered through much of winter, no state or city had a record cold one.  For the country as a whole, daily record highs outpaced record lows by 3-to-2.

Read more at Once Again, a Record-Hot Winter for California