September ties for 2nd warmest in Lower 48

High-pressure dome kept Southeast hot, dry

In the latest episode of toasty weather as our planet continues to heat up, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information said September 2019 tied for the secondwarmest September on record in the Lower 48. Records fell as a stubborn heat dome baked the Southeast, bringing unrelenting scorchers that climbed into the triple digits in some spots.

The Climate Prediction Center’s three-month temperature outlook favors anomalous warmth across the contiguous states through the rest of autumn.

The average temperature across the Lower 48 was 68.5 degrees, 3.5 degrees above the 20th century average. According to the NCEI, September 2019 ties for second place for the warmest in a 125-year stretch of records. In terms of precipitation, the month was on par with average.

The most abnormally hot weather was in the eastern two-thirds of the nation. Five of the 48 contiguous states recorded their warmest September on record: Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. Thirty-three others were aboveaverage. Only eight states — on the West Coast and in northern New England — remained near average during September.

In the Southeast, an exceptional dry spell beneath the dominant high pressure led to scant rainfall and drought.

Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi had their driest September on record, as did Kentucky and West Virginia. Huntsville, Alabama, which averages 3.72 inches of rain in September, received a quarter inch. Lexington, Kentucky, had a trace of rain.

The extreme heat fits into a pattern in which climate change is tipping the scales toward more and persistent record heat.