The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center announced last week that the continental United States has set four new temperature records: for warmest spring, warmest 12-month period, warmest first five months of the year, and highest deviation from a seasonal average for any season. This past spring broke the 1910 record by 2 degrees, driven by the warmest March, third warmest April, and second warmest May on record. Spring saw an average temperature 5.2 degrees higher than the 20th century average. Individual records for warmest spring were set by 31 states, while no state in the lower 48 had cooler-than-average temperatures. Indicative of the larger trend, Des Moines, Iowa has averaged temperatures eight degrees above average since January. The country is 3.2 degrees above average over the past 12 months. In addition to the warmest spring, this period has also seen the second warmest summer and fourth warmest winter.