US temperature still rising.

[mgc1961]

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2010-01-11-climate-report_N.htm

"Despite an unusually chilly year in the Midwest, the national U.S. temperature was slightly above average in 2009, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

This marked the 13th consecutive year the nation experienced a warmer-than-normal average temperature. Since the late 1980s, 21 of the last 24 years have been unusually warm in the USA. Beginning in late 1800s, when accurate weather records began, the country has been warming at a rate of about 0.1 degree per decade, according to the climate center.

Overall, the nation measured 53.1 degrees for the year, which ranked it as the 35-warmest year on record. The long-term average is 52.8 degrees.

The climate center reported that while much of the central Plains and Midwest had below-normal temperatures in 2009, the coolness there was counterbalanced by above-average readings in parts of the South, Southwest and West.

Precipitation was more of a story than temperature in many locations. Three states –Illinois, Arkansas, and Alabama– slogged through their second-wettest year on record. Meanwhile, six other states had one of their top 10 wettest years ever recorded: Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, and Missouri.

Arizona was the only state that recorded one of its 10-driest years on record.

Global temperatures for 2009 will be released this week. Based on preliminary data, scientists predicted that 2009 was one of the 10-warmest years of the global surface temperature record, and likely finished as the fourth, fifth or sixth warmest year on record."