By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI
News staff
Despite ending on a
frigid note, 2017 was a warm year for southern New England, and the planet.
Globally, a European
Union climate agency calculates that 2017 was 2.16 degrees
Fahrenheit warmer than pre-industrial temperatures, to earn the second-warmest
year on record after 2016; 2015 was the previous second warmest.
Locally, 2017 was the
eighth warmest for Rhode Island and Connecticut, and the 10th warmest for Massachusetts,
according to the National Weather Service and the Northeast Regional Climate Center at
Cornell University.
Driving up the
temperatures was a record-warm February, which was 6.6 degrees above normal and
the highest for the Northeast since 1895. Feb. 23 set a record of 66 degrees in
Providence. The Bay State also had the distinction of having its first February
tornado, which touched down in western Massachusetts.
It was the warmest October ever for New England. Massachusetts and Connecticut had their warmest autumns since data were taken. Providence had a record October, with an average temperature of 61.3 degrees, 7.7 degrees above normal.
Data from the National
Weather Service show that Providence had an average temperature of 52.9 degrees
in 2017. The state had an average temperature of 51.5 degrees; 2012 was the
warmest year in Rhode Island since 1905, with an average of 52.9 degrees, and
2016 was the second warmest for the state, with an average temperature of 52.2
degrees.
Summer 2017 temperatures
in Providence were slightly below average at 71.1 degrees, 1.35 degrees below
the mean. Last spring had average temperatures, but last winter was the eighth
warmest at 35.1 degrees, 3.3 degree above the average.
February was the seventh
warmest in Providence, with an average temperature of 35.7 degrees. April
was the third warmest in Providence, with an average temperature of 52.6
degrees, 3.5 degrees above average. May 18 reached a record 95 degrees. May 19
reached 91 degrees, breaking a record of 89 degrees set in 1906.
Winter 2017 was the
eighth warmest in Providence. Jan. 12 hit a record 60 degrees, and January had
an average temperature in Providence of 34.8 degrees, 5.6 above the mean.
Last spring was the
fifth wettest for Providence, as April and May had nearly 14 inches of
precipitation. In all, 2017 was close to the average for precipitation in
southern New England. But 2018 began with record snowfall on Jan. 4, with 14.1
inches in Providence, 13.4 inches in Boston, and 10.2 inches in Hartford.
