WASHINGTON — On a day when much of the U.S. struggled with bone-chilling cold, federal meteorologists said America’s weather in 2014 wasn’t really that bad.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday that the average U.S. temperature in 2014 was half a degree warmer than normal and weather was less disastrous and drought-stricken than previous years. While 2014 was warmer than 2013 in the lower 48 states, it was still only the 34th-warmest on record.
Globally, 2014 likely will go down as the warmest year on record.
“It was a strange year for the U.S.,” said University of Illinois climate scientist Donald Wuebbles. “The extreme warmth and droughts in the western U.S. and the extreme cold winter and cooler summer in the East and Midwest were largely driven by blocking patterns at high latitudes in the Arctic.”
Last year, eight weather disasters caused more than $1 billion damage, according to NOAA. The last five years averaged 10 such billion-dollar disasters.
