The National Climatic Data Center issued a report yesterday placing 2012 as the warmest year on record for the CONUS. While it was the warmest year for Des Moines, it was not the warmest for all sites in the state. The areal averaged temperature for Iowa came in a very close second place behind the year 1931. The featured image presents the year to date average temperature for 1931 and 2012 in the top chart and the monthly average temperature departures in the bottom chart. It is interesting to note how August for each year was similar and both very close to average. The last four months of the year show why 1931 was able to remain number one in Iowa. Please note that these numbers are IEM estimates and do not match the NCDC estimates, but we both have 2012 coming in second for Iowa.

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Tags:   1931   2012