AMU Emergency Management Public Safety

Alaska is Heating Up at a Record Pace

NOAA: Alaska is warming more quickly than any other U.S. state

In recent months, there have been many news headlines of record heat, global warming and climate change, and, if recent data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is indicative at all, the subject matter and frequency of headlines will not be changing course any time soon.

The National Centers for Environmental Information of the NOAA reported last month that [link url=”http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201604″ title=”April 2016 was the hottest April on record on Earth“.] That marked twelve straight months of record-breaking heat across the world. Global temperatures have now set records each month for an entire calendar year.

Climate.gov: U.S. states warming rate, °F per century
Climate.gov: U.S. states warming rate, °F per century

In the U.S., one state in particular is bearing the brunt of climate change: Alaska. According to the NOAA’s [link url=”https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/alaska-last-frontier-front-lines-climate-change” title=”Climate.gov,”] Alaska, on a statewide basis, has been warming at a rate of +5.3°F per century since 1950. This blows away temperature increases from other U.S. states.

Minnesota, the state warming at the second fastest rate, is nearly a full degree lower, as it has been warming at a rate of +4.4°F per century since 1950. Another northern contiguous state, Montana, is warming at the third fast clip — at a rate of +4.3°F per century since 1950. Delaware, Wisconsin and New Jersey are tied for fourth with a warming rate of +4.1°F per century since 1950.

Arctic is warming faster than anywhere

Given that fact that [link url=”http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/air_temperature.html” title=”nowhere on the planet is warming faster than the Artic“] and also the predictions that [link url=”https://amuedge.com/record-breaking-arctic-melting-expected-this-summer/” title=”the Arctic will experience record-breaking melting this summer,”] it’s not much of a surprise to see Alaska topping the chart of warming U.S. states.

There are 344 climate divisions in the continental U.S., and another 13 in Alaska. Of this 357 total [link url=”https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-references/maps/us-climate-divisions.php” title=”climate divisions,”] the five that are warming the at the fastest rate [link url=”https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/alaska-last-frontier-front-lines-climate-change” title=”are all in the state of Alaska.”]

[relink url=”https://amuedge.com/noaa-a-hot-summer-is-forthcoming/” url2=”https://amuedge.com/record-breaking-arctic-melting-expected-this-summer/” url3=”https://amuedge.com/noaa-february-2016-was-hottest-month-ever/”]

Comments are closed.