March 2012 was the country's warmest March on record. It was amazing the warmth this year beat the long standing and very anomalous warm record from 1910. 25 states over two-thirds of the United States set a warmest March record, including New Jersey. The only cooler area was in the West, due mostly to persistent precipitation and cloud cover from low pressures that kept getting stuck.
For a global perspective, notice the record warmth in the United States was matched by a similar area of warmth north of Europe. What do you think the people living along the Kara Sea have been saying since at least January? Probably the same thing we've been saying. "The weather is definitely messed up." That bubble of warmth and high pressure in the Arctic Ocean has been there for a few months, more or less, and was responsible for the cold spell in Europe this winter. The blocking of weather from the Kara Sea high was also a part in the cooler temperature in eastern Russia and Alaska that helped allow United States temperature to be so warm.
Now that it is April, the same areas that were record warm in March are now having freezes at night. It's like a desert in the cool season. The heat in March scorched everything but was generally dry. Since the March heat wave ended, and the atmosphere hasn't really shifted any air around, the excess heat in the heat wave area has been radiated off into space at night causing cool nighttime temperatures. It was 28F in my area this morning with a forecast high of 67F. Along with a pretty significant short-term drought, that is like desert weather. Maybe you've noticed the streaks from the clouds the past few days, known as virga, which is precipitation evaporating back into dry air before reaching the ground. Virga is a common occurrence in a desert climate.
So does this information mean anything? I wouldn't ever dare to make that decision for anyone else except myself. I like a lyric from Incubus that goes . . . Enough bowing down to disillusion, hats off and applause to rogues of evolution, the ripple effect is too good not to mention, if you're not affected you're not paying attention.
