Looking at the Past Year of 8-14 Day National Climate Outlooks! (credit: NWS Climate Prediction Center)

DISCUSSION: As part of national climate research, the NWS Climate Prediction Center issues daily updates on the 8 to 14 day climate outlook (i.e., for both precipitation and temperature) across the contiguous United States.  Note how the majority of the temperature outlooks which were issued during the past 12 months were associated with above-average temperature forecasts across parts of the northwestern, south-central, and southeastern United States.  This is always very interesting to see over a longer period of time and will be neat to see how this trend evolves over the next couple and ultimately several years!

It is imperative to note that the consistent trend for much of the country to be projected for having anomalously warm temperatures is not axiomatically symbolic of definitive climate change since climate signals are examined over periods of time which are generally between 30 and 40 years long. 

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©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz