Weather.com - Jon Erdman, updated 10/10/12
NOAA/NCDC
Graph of Jan-Sep. average temperatures over the Lower 48 States since 1895 (blue trace). Record-setting 2012 temperature is circled in upper-right corner. Long-term trend shown by sloping red line.
While September was cooler than average for several states in the Ohio Valley, mid-Mississippi Valley and parts of the Southeast, the year's first nine months were the record warmest across the U.S., according to a NOAA report released Tuesday.
NCDC's State of the Climate report said the nationally-averaged temperature for the first nine months of 2012 (59.8°F) was the warmest such period on record dating to 1895, approximately 3.8°F above the long-term average and 1.2°F above the previous record stretch from Jan-Sep. 2006.
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