2003 was Among USA's Warmest Years, According to Climate Data

Dec. 18, 2003
By Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY

DENVER — Persistent warmth and dryness in the West and cooler, wetter weather in the East made 2003 a year of sharp contrasts, according to a preliminary review Tuesday.

Despite a cooler East Coast, this year will rank as one of the 20 warmest since consistent record-keeping began in 1895, the National Climatic Data Center said Tuesday.

Near-record warmth and steadfast drought from Colorado to the Pacific mean much of the West will enter 2004 with a great moisture deficit to overcome.

Also Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization, a Geneva-based arm of the United Nations, said 2003 will be the third-warmest year worldwide in nearly a century and a half. All three of the warmest years since 1861, when scientists began to keep accurate global records, have been in the past six years: 1998 (the hottest), 2002 and this year. The 10 warmest have occurred since 1990.

(Related:U.N.: 2003 third hottest year on record)

With two weeks left in 2003, 70% of the Western USA remains in moderate to severe drought. Seventeen states along or west of the Mississippi River were significantly drier than normal this year.

Getting out of that rut will require extended normal to above-normal rain and snow, says Jay Lawrimore, climate monitoring chief for the National Climatic Data Center in North Carolina.

"It's not something they are going to recover from in a single month," Lawrimore says. "All the reservoirs out there are below average. A very, very good snow pack could go a long way. What really matters is long term (precipitation)."

But fortunes can turn quickly. Lawrimore notes that three years ago, much of the East suffered severe drought, too. Now, several Eastern states and cities are at or near record rainfall levels for the year.

Virginia has set a new annual mark. North Carolina and Maryland are expected to do so by year's end. Twelve other states were much wetter than average this year. Richmond, Va., Baltimore and Washington also are close to rainfall records.

The findings are part of the climatic data center's annual climate review.

Although the results are preliminary, the last two weeks of the year aren't likely to change the statistics.

The report also marks major weather "events" of 2003, including the Presidents Day blizzard on the East Coast, May's record-setting 516 tornadoes in one month, California's record wildfires and another above-average year for Atlantic hurricanes.

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