“It will probably also turn out to be the warmest winter month, period,” a climatologist said.
New data shows that nearly every U.S. state likely recorded the hottest December temperatures on record, after several regions throughout the country experienced unprecedented winter heat. The Lower 48 states are among those that experienced the record-breaking temperatures, with areas in the South, East and Central U.S. reporting highs that exceeded those from more than a century of December data, according to a new report by Axios. Among those states is Texas, which experienced its warmest December on record since 1889, according to state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. Across the Lone Star State, temperatures averaged 5 to 9 degrees above normal. “It’s like the entire state moved south for the winter,” Nielsen-Gammon said in a statement on January 3. “Amarillo got Dallas’s normal temperatures, Dallas got Corpus Christi’s normal temperatures, and Austin got Brownsville’s normal temperatures.
