New Mexico’s biggest fire ever as seen on May 29th from NASA’s Aqua satellite. Photo by: NASA.
Spring in the U.S. was the warmest on record, beating the past record-year (1910), by a stunning two degrees Fahrenheit, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The data also shows that the past 12 months—from June 2011 through May 2012—was the warmest on record in the contiguous U.S. as well.
According to NOAA, March 2012 was the warmest ever, April the third warmest, and May the second warmest. May was 3.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average in the contiguous U.S.
Warm temperatures and ongoing drought conditions in the Southwest U.S. have fueled recent wildfires in New Mexico and Colorado. In fact, New Mexico has seen its largest wildfire ever with 247,000 acres (100,000 hectares) burned in the Gila Forest, beating out its previous record made just last year.
Since the early Twentieth Century, temperatures have risen by 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.44 degrees Fahrenheit) worldwide due to anthropogenic climate change.
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