The nation's unusual warmth keeps on rolling: Through April, the USA is experiencing its warmest year on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Tuesday, with a national average temperature of 45 degrees.
This is 5 degrees above the long-term average.
So far this year, more than 15,000 record high temperatures have been set across the nation, compared with about 1,100 record lows, reports Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton.
The first four months of 2012 were drier than average for the United States as a whole, with some regional variability, NOAA reported. The eastern third of the nation has been drier than average, with Maryland and Delaware both having their driest year on record, to date.
April itself was the third-warmest on record in the USA, with only April 2006 and April 1981 warmer than this April.
U.S. weather records go back to 1895.
