With the official start of fall is less than a month away on Sept. 22, it looks like Americans will be able to enjoy the season of pumpkin spice without getting too chilly.
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A seasonal outlook map provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that nearly all of the U.S. can expect warmer than usual temperatures this fall. Only a sliver of the Pacific coast – especially the Pacific Northwest – and the southern part of Alaska are expected to have normal or below average temperatures.
An area around the borders of Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico is most likely (70-80%) to have hotter temperatures, as well as the northern tip of the East Coast. There’s a 40-50% chance of warmer temperatures in the Southeast and there’s a 30-40% chance throughout most of the Midwest. In much of the Southwest, Florida, Pennsylvania and western New York the chances are slightly higher at 50-60%.
“Your trek to the pumpkin patch may be a bit steamy this year,” said the Old Farmer’s Almanac. “It looks as if [the almanac] is predicting a warmer-than-normal autumn this year! In fact, it should be quite warm for the western half of the United States!”
However, the almanac had a slightly different outlook than the NOAA.
Its map showed an area beginning at the West Coast to around the Mississippi River is expected to have higher temperatures. Then, it showed that the upper Midwest and most of the Gulf Coast would have near-average temperatures. An area beginning at the Great Lakes region in Chicago and going east to the Pennsylvania/New York border and curving south along the coast all the way to Florida is actually expected to have cooler temperatures, said the almanac. Like the NOAA map, this one showed warmer temperatures are expected in Maine and the upper tip of the East Coast.
According to the 34th annual State of the Climate report released earlier this month, greenhouse gas concentrations, the global temperature across land and the ocean, global sea level and ocean heat content all reached record highs last year. Levels of all three greenhouse gasses (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) increased.
“This report documents and shares a startling, but well-established picture: We are experiencing a warming world as I speak, and the indicators and impacts are seen throughout the planet. The report is another signpost to current and future generations,” said the National Centers for Environmental Information Director Derek Arndt.
Heat records were also crushed this year, with the hottest day on record popping up this July. This month, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $200,000 in funding to support extreme heat preparedness and response planning.
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