You're welcome, USA: Northwest's chilly February prevents national heat record

While many areas of the Pacific Northwest shivered through its third straight month of chilly winter, the rest of the nation was wondering if it already missed winter and had already spring.

More than 11,700 daily heat records were broken across much of the U.S., but as a whole, the nation ended up just shy of the record set in 1954.

Here's the full story by AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein:


WASHINGTON (AP) - A freakishly balmy February broke more than 11,700 local daily records for warmth in the United States, but it didn't quite beat 1954 for the warmest February on record, climate scientists said.

The average temperature last month was 41.2 degrees - 7.3 degrees warmer than normal but three-tenths a degree behind the record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday.



An international science team's computer analysis of causes of extreme weather calculated that man-made global warming tripled the likelihood for the nation's unusually warm February. The mostly private team of researchers, called World Weather Attribution, uses accepted scientific techniques to figure if climate change plays a role in extreme events based on computer simulations of real world conditions and those without heat-trapping gases.



"This is the new climate normal that we all need to come to grips with," Titley said. "And it's stunning how quickly our climate has changed."






"What is lurking behind the corner while we're outside throwing a Frisbee might be looking to make our lives less pleasant," he said.