U.S. Warm Records Crushing Cold Records by Over 5-to-1 Ratio in 2017

Above-average temperatures continue to dominate the majority of the United States in 2017, with the number of warm records crushing cold records by a ratio of more than 5-to-1 through mid-April. Only the Pacific Northwest and far northern Rockies have seen mean temperatures that are colder than average through this point of the year, according to data compiled by the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

...

It was the warmest year-to-date on record through April 17 in many cities, including Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, Louisville, Kentucky, Huntington, West Virginia, Columbus, Ohio, Meridian, Mississippi, Montgomery, Alabama, Greenville, South Carolina, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Temperatures in these cities are generally running 5 to 8 degrees above average for the year.

According to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), there have been 27,882 daily warm records tied or set compared to only 5,158 daily cold records in the U.S. this year through Easter Sunday – approximately 5.4 daily warm records for every daily cold record.

Looking at monthly records, the ratio is even more lopsided so far in 2017, with 1,736 warm records and only 124 cold records, a 14-1 ratio, NCEI's data shows.