2007 among hottest years ever

With a summer chock full of sweltering hot days, 2007 will long be remembered for being one of the hottest years on record in much of the country.

The preliminary annual average temperature in the United States for 2007 will likely be near 54.3 degrees, making it the eighth warmest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported. Including 2007, seven of the eight warmest years have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997.

Michelle Parcus, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Huntsville, said north Alabama residents will remember the summer of 2007 for many years. "It was an awful summer because of the heat and drought," she said.

Rainfall in the Shoals was more than 17 inches below normal in 2007.

Scientists worldwide contend a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, caused by automobiles exhausts, coal-burning power plant emissions and other pollution is responsible for the rising temperatures and droughts. Some critics contend the overly warm temperatures are only part of a normal cycle.

The warmer than normal weather of 2007 was most noticeable in August when more than 2,500 new daily record highs were established across the country, the oceanic and atmospheric agency reported.

August, with an average temperature of 85.5 degrees, was the warmest month in the Shoals since recordkeeping began in 1893, the National Weather Service reported. The previous record of 85.4 degrees was set in July 1980.

Record daily high temperatures were set nine days in August at the Northwest Alabama Regional Airport in Muscle Shoals.

It was the hottest August on record in Alabama, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Nationwide, June, July and August were the sixth hottest ever recorded. with only 1936, 2006, 1934, 2002 and 1998 being warmer, the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., reported.

While many high temperature records were broken in 2007, there also were some record-setting cold days in the Shoals. An Easter weekend freeze set daily low temperature records for April 7-8. The low April 7 was 26 degrees, breaking the previous record of 30 degrees for the date set in 1982. The low of 26 degrees April 8 broke a record of 30 degrees set in 1939.

The cold snap caused extensive damage to corn, wheat, fruit and nut crops throughout northwest Alabama.

Record-setting cold temperatures also were recorded throughout the South and Midwest in April, causing about $1 billion in losses to farm and horticulture crops, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.

Record-setting dry conditions across much of the South and West also took a toll on farm crops.

In the West, huge forest fires raged, destroying hundreds of homes and other buildings. The National Interagency Fire Center reported about 9 million acres were blackened by fires around the country in 2007.

Parcus said forecasts call for the first half of January to be wetter than normal in the Tennessee Valley.

For the January through March period, forecasts call for the area north of the Tennessee Valley to receive more rainfall than normal while communities south of the region will be drier than normal.

Parcus is holding out hope north Alabama will wind up with above-normal rainfall. "We'd love to get some rainfall. Hopefully the drought will break in 2008. But you never know, the drought could go another year and then break."

The 38.28 inches of rain recorded in the Shoals in 2007 made it the third driest year on record, with only 1943 and 1941 being drier.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.