What Happened to Below-Normal Temperatures?

Despite a several-day stretch of below-normal temperatures, April is still running over a degree above normal, and warmer weather toward the end of this week should push us even higher. If April finishes above normal, it will mark the 12th consecutive month of normal or above-normal temperatures (based on 1971-2000 norms). We have to go back to April of last year for our last "cold" month, when we finished 2.5 degrees below normal for our coldest April since 1983.

This streak is not only noteworthy for its duration, but also for its intensity.

Other than July 2007, which finished right at normal, every other month during the streak has finished at least one degree above normal. The average for the 11 months from May 2007 through March 2008 was 2.8 degrees above normal.

Now certainly our streak will end at some point, and perhaps with a vengeance ala February 2007, which came in at 7.2 degrees below normal. But given that 32 out of the last 40 months have finished normal or above, I think it's likely that below-normal temperatures will be hard to come by in the near future. In fact, the Climate Prediction Center agrees, with no below-normal areas on their maps through June 2009.