Coldest Average US Temperature This Year since 1890

The Washington Times reports through Real Science that this year has been the coldest year on record so far in the US.

The data come from the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN), which has 1218 observing stations across the 48 contiguous United States. The USHCN has been developed over the years at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Real Science shows the highest and lowest temperatures for the year from 1890 through May of this year. This year, the lowest average temperature was 2.8°C, whereas it had previously never been below 2.9°C.

However on the warm side, the high average temperature this year was 7.5°C, whereas it had never been below 7°C. In summary, we have seen through May of this year more variation in continental US temperature than any previous year since 1890.

Real Science also shows that two thirds of the continental US had lower than average temperatures, while one third had higher than average temperatures.

My point in this writing is not to refute or support any claim of global warming or cooling from the reported USHCN data. The US is only a relatively small part of the global landmass.

Even if the data were on a global basis, it should not be interpreted that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had any significant effect on the temperatures. This was not mentioned in the Real Science article, but is always an underlying consideration with the Obama Administration’s persistent unscientific efforts to connect atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations with global climate change in an effort to justify control of carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.

As Sen. Marco Rubio has said, there is high skepticism concerning any man induced climate change. Climate change has previously occurred from natural causes and will continue