September will be remembered as a month of extremes: Historic wildfires burned across the West, unprecedented tropical activity churned up the Atlantic, and parts of the country saw record heat.
What’s more, the first nine months of 2020 brought a record-tying 16 billion-dollar weather disasters to the nation, according to scientists with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. Six of those events — western wildfires, a Western/Central U.S. drought and heatwave, Hurricane Sally, Hurricane Laura, the Midwest derecho and Hurricane Isaias — have all occurred since June.
Here are the climate highlights for September and 2020 to date:
The average September temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 66.0 degrees F — 1.1 degrees above average — which fell into the warmest third in the 126-year record. While parts of the country saw cooler-than-average temperatures, including the Plains and Deep South, much of the West was steamy.
Continue reading at NOAA.
Image via NOAA.