The U.S. experienced the second warmest half-year on record in 2017, based on average temperatures from January to June, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The average temperature for the first six months of the year reached 50.9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 3.4 degrees above the 20th-century average, the agency reported Friday.
“This was the second warmest first-half of the year in the record, 1.2 degrees cooler than 2012,” according to NOAA.
The agency said that in June alone many parts of the country experienced temperatures more common to the “dog days” of late summer than in the transition between spring and summer.
“Last month, the average contiguous U.S. temperature was 70.3 degrees [Fahrenheit], 1.9 degrees above the 20th-century average,” NOAA said. But it wasn’t the warmest June on record. June 2017 only “tied as the 20th warmest June in the 123-year period of record.” Although “much-above-average temperatures” were seen across the Southwest, much of the Southeast, Lower Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley “were cooler than average.”
The year also is shaping up to be one of the wettest on record, according to NOAA. The precipitation total in the first half of the year was 17.86 inches, or 2.55 inches above average, which ranked as the sixth wettest on record.
The average precipitation total for June was 3.01 inches, or 0.08 inch above the 20th-century average, “ranking near the middle of the record,” the agency said. “Below-average precipitation in the Southwest, Central Rockies and Great Plains was offset by above-average precipitation in the Deep South and parts of the Great Lakes.”
