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'06 was warmest for U.S. in century

Greenhouse gases and El Nino are to blame, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

By WASHINGTON POST
Published January 10, 2007

WASHINGTON - Last year was the warmest in the continental United States of the past 112 years - capping a nine-year warming streak "unprecedented in the historical record," the government said Tuesday. It also said that climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels has set the stage for the ever hotter temperatures.

According to the government's National Climatic Data Center, the record-breaking warmth - which caused daffodils and cherry trees to bloom throughout the East this past New Year's Day - was the result of both unusual regional weather patterns and the long-term effects of the buildup of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

"People should be concerned about what we are doing to the climate," said Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Burning of fossil fuels is causing an increase in greenhouse gases, and there's a broad scientific consensus that is producing climate change."

Average temperatures nationwide in 2006 were than 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the mean temperatures nationwide for the 20th century, the agency said. It reported that seven months in 2006 were much warmer than average, and that last month was the fourth warmest December on record. Average temperatures for all 48 continental states were above or well above average, and New Jersey logged its hottest temperatures ever.

NOAA said an El Nino weather pattern in the equatorial Pacific also contributed to the warm temperatures by blocking cold Arctic air from moving south and east across the nation.

NOAA pointed one silver lining: The unusually warm temperatures from October to December helped reduce residential energy use for heating by 13.5 percent below the average for that period.

Climate experts generally do not make much of temperature fluctuations over one or two years, but Lawrimore said the record 2006 temperatures were part of a long and worrisome trend. For instance, NOAA said, the past nine years have all been among the 25 warmest years on record for the continental United States. The government has been collecting temperature data since 1895.

[Last modified January 10, 2007, 01:25:10]