The large area of dry conditions in 2012 resulted in a very large footprint of drought conditions, which peaked in July with about 61 percent of the CONUS in moderate-to-exceptional drought, according to the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Georgia, and Delaware had a top ten dry year. Nebraska’s annual precipitation total of 13.04 inches was 9.78 inches below average, and Wyoming’s annual precipitation total of 8.08 inches was 5.09 inches below average. Nebraska and Wyoming were both record dry in 2012. Below-average precipitation totals stretched from the Intermountain West, through the Great Plains, into the Midwest and Southeast. Much of the CONUS was drier than average for the year. One notable warmest year record occurred in Central Park, in New York City, which has a period of record dating back 136 years. Each state in the CONUS, except Washington, had at least one location experience its warmest year on record.
Numerous cities and towns were also record warm during 2012 and a select list of those locations is available here. A list of the annual temperatures for each of the lower-48 states is available here. Only Georgia (11 th warmest year), Oregon (12 th warmest), and Washington (30 th warmest) had annual temperatures that were not among the ten warmest in their respective period of records. An additional 26 states had one of their 10 warmest years.
Nineteen states, stretching from Utah to Massachusetts, had annual temperatures which were record warm. Each state in the CONUS had annual temperatures which were above average. On a statewide and seasonal level, 2012 was a year of both temperature and precipitation extremes for the United States.
Over the 118-year period of record, precipitation across the CONUS has increased at a rate of about 0.16 inch per decade. Precipitation totals in 2012 ranked as the 15 th driest year on record. Precipitation averaged across the CONUS in 2012 was 26.57 inches, which is 2.57 inches below the 20 th century average. Since 1895, the CONUS has observed a long-term temperature increase of about 0.13☏ per decade. The 2012 annual temperature was 1.0☏ warmer than the previous record warm year of 1998. In 2012, the contiguous United States (CONUS) average annual temperature of 55.3☏ was 3.2☏ above the 20 th century average, and was the warmest year in the 1895-2012 period of record for the nation.
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