Preliminary information from the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, shows the distribution of temperature and precipitation state-by-state.
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| This is the rank of the mean temperatures by states based on 117 years of data. The rank of 103 for South Carolina means that the mean temperature was the 14th warmest on record. Image Credit: NOAA/NCDC. |
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| This is the rank of the total precipitation by states based on 117 years of data. The rank of 8 for South Carolina means that the precipitation was the 8th driest on record. Image Credit: NOAA/NCDC. |
It was a hot year for most of the East and South. Texas had the driest year on record while much of the Ohio River Valley and Northeast saw record precipitation. You can see a list of the records at Dr. Jeff Masters' Blog. A summary for each region of the country is available at the National Climatic Data Center.
This also led to a record number of billion dollar disasters. Ironically, the most expensive single disaster was the drought centered in Texas. The costs are now in excess of 10 billion dollars.
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| The data covers only from 1980, but 2011 is only through the end of November. Image Credit: NOAA/NCDC. |
It was also a year of extremes in the Midlands. Here is a bullet point list of events:
...PERSISTENT LA NINA PATTERN ACROSS THE REGION...
...TIED FOR THE SECOND WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD AT COLUMBIA...
...4TH DRIEST YEAR ON RECORD AT AUGUSTA...
...JANUARY 10TH-11TH WINTER STORM...
...APRIL HAIL EVENT ONE OF THE WORST ON RECORD...
...MULTIPLE FLASH FLOOD EVENTS ALONG ROCKY BRANCH CREEK IN AUGUST
AND SEPTEMBER...
...HURRICANE IRENE BRUSHES THE SOUTH CAROLINA COAST IN AUGUST...
...HOTTEST SUMMER ON RECORD AT BOTH COLUMBIA AND AUGUSTA...
Leonard Vaughan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Columbia, South Carolina, has written a fine summary of the year in the Midlands. It goes through month-by-month highlighting the weather events (click here to read the summary).
