2012 Warmest Year on Record for Ohio
Continental U.S. also seeing record high temperatures
Statewide average temperatures dating to 1931 show Ohio is in the midst of the warmest year on record.
Thomas Schmidlin, a geography professor at Kent State University, said statewide records show the average temperature from January to June in that 82 year span is 45.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ohioans saw the coldest first six months of the year in 1978, when the statewide average temperature was 40.7 degrees.
This year proved the warmest so far with an average temperature of 51 degrees.
"Every month has been warmer than average this year, but the record warm March made this six-month period extraordinary," Schmidlin said.
Ohio's not alone. The entire nation is seeing warmer temperatures this year, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported these last six months have been the hottest January through June on record for the continental United States.
Schmidlin said it's tough to point to one particular cause for the higher than average temperatures, but he said in general there's been an absence of cold air masses the past several months.
"The heat wave in March made this year extraordinary, and that was caused by a persistent pattern of air flow northward from the Gulf of Mexico and a retreat of polar air far to the north," he said. "That pattern ended, cold air came back and April was actually colder than March. But, on balance, we have had several months with an absence of cold air masses."