Winter 2015-16 Was Warmest On Record For Contiguous United States
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicagoans have been basking in unseasonably mild weather this week, on the heels of the warmest winter on record for the lower 48 states.
The average temperature for the contiguous United States for meteorological winter (Dec. 1 through Feb. 29) was 36.8 degrees, which was 4.6 degrees above normal, and broke the record set in the winter of 1999-2000, when the average temperature was 36.5 degrees.
The top 5 warmest winters in the lower 48 states all have come since 1998, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
For Chicago, the average temperature for December through February was 31.3 degrees, nearly five degrees above normal. It was the 14th warmest winter since 1872. The average high was 37.8 degrees, more than 4 degrees above the average from 1981 to 2010.
The warmest region of all this winter was New England, where every state had its warmest winter on record, with Maine nearly 9 degrees above normal.
The average temperature this winter was warmer than average for all of the lower 48 states. For 34 of them, this winter ranked among the 10 warmest on record.