U.S. winter was fifth-warmest; no records broken in Maine

WASHINGTON – Record warmth in January helped boost the winter of 2005-06 to the fifth-warmest on record.

For all states except Alaska and Hawaii, the average winter temperature was 36.29 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.2 degrees above average. The three months December through February are considered meteorological winter.

The warmest winter on record was 1999-2000 at 36.95 degrees. Others warmer than this year were 1998-99, 1991-92 and 1997-98.

During this winter, 41 states had temperatures above average, with only seven near average and none cooler than the long-term mean, according to the National Climatic Data Center, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In Maine, the winter also was the fifth-warmest on record in Bangor, where the average temperature was 23.9 degrees, or about 2 degrees above average.

It was the third-warmest January since records have been kept at Bangor International Airport, according to a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Caribou. The temperature hit 57 on Jan. 14.

In Portland, January was the second-warmest on record, where the average temperature was 8.6 degrees above normal.

The winter average of 28 degrees in Portland is the sixth-warmest since records have been kept at the Portland International Jetport.

The warm weather reduced energy demand nationally by an estimated 11 percent from what would have been expected in an average year, according to the center.

Nationwide, rain and snowfall was near average, but extremely dry conditions prevailed throughout much of the Southwest and central and southern Plains.

This was the driest winter on record in Arizona and second-driest on record for New Mexico and Oklahoma. Five other states – Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska – were much drier than average.

On the other hand, a series of powerful Pacific storms hit the Northwest and parts of the West during December and January, and four Western states – Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada – were much wetter than average for the season.

A major snowstorm hit the East Coast on Feb. 11-12 with parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut receiving more than 20 inches of snow.

A storm that struck northern and eastern Maine in late December dumped a high of 39 inches of snow on Fort Kent over 48 hours.

This winter also had Tropical Storm Zeta, which developed near the end of December, becoming the 27th named storm during the record-setting 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It weakened below tropical storm strength during the first week of January without making landfall.

BDN writer Eric Russell contributed to this report.