{"id":22452,"date":"2012-12-19T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=22452"},"modified":"2012-12-19T09:45:31","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T15:45:31","slug":"2012-set-to-have-highest-average-temperature-than-any-other-year-in-texas-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/12\/19\/2012-set-to-have-highest-average-temperature-than-any-other-year-in-texas-history\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 Set to Break Record for Highest Average Temperature in Texas History"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_21909\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 221px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/12\/05\/are-new-words-needed-for-a-warming-world\/a-paraglider-passes-before-a-hot-air-bal\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21909\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21909\" title=\"A paraglider passes before a hot air bal\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/12\/96575615-221x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"221\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/12\/96575615-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/12\/96575615.jpg 438w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">NOEL CELIS\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Record hot days in December. Should we be happy or worried?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Many people who lived through the hot Texas summer of 2011 remember it with something approaching shell shock. The weeks upon weeks of 100-degree heat, the drought that crippled agriculture and contributed to widespread wildfires. Nothing, it seemed, could ever approach such a summer again.<\/p>\n<p>But that doesn&#8217;t mean the state isn&#8217;t breaking heat records again this year.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this fall 2012 was projected to be Texas\u2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/11\/06\/in-texas-hot-weather-is-becoming-a-relative-concept\/\">fourth hottest year on record<\/a> when it comes to average temperature. That surprised many of our readers, and it&#8217;s no wonder.\u00a0 After 2011, this year seemed like a welcome relief. But, if you take average temperatures from the entire year, it now turns out 2012 won&#8217;t likely be the fourth hottest year.<\/p>\n<p>It will likely be the hottest year, on average, in Texas history.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->According to State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, the current record-holding year is 1921, with an average temperature of 67.5 degrees.\u00a0 He estimates this year to end with an average of 67.6 degrees, squeaking by that record.\u00a0 And a lot of that has to do with the non-summer months.<\/p>\n<p>This summer saw its <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/11\/08\/by-the-numbers-texas-long-heat-wave\/\">fair share of 100-degree days<\/a>. But it was a warm spring and winter that significantly raised the average temperatures, says Neilsen Gammon. Then came the <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/12\/05\/are-new-words-needed-for-a-warming-world\/\">warmer-than-usual December<\/a> to further bump up the average statewide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, with the warmth we\u2019ve enjoyed, or not, so far this December, we\u2019re actually on track to set the record for warmest year ever,\u201d Nielsen-Gammon told StateImpact Texas. \u201dDecember is currently running 8 degrees above normal statewide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though an incoming cold front is expected to lower December&#8217;s average temperature, Nielsen-Gammon expects this month will still be 5.4 degrees above normal by New Year&#8217;s Eve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people who lived through the hot Texas summer of 2011 remember it with something approaching shell shock. The weeks upon weeks of 100-degree heat, the drought that crippled agriculture and contributed to widespread wildfires. Nothing, it seemed, could ever approach such a summer again. But that doesn&#8217;t mean the state isn&#8217;t breaking heat records [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":21909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[61],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}