The United States had its second-warmest year on record in 2015, with every single state winding up milder than average -- including some, like Florida, Montana, Oregon and Washington, that were record warm, according to new data released Thursday. This was the 19th straight year when the annual average temperature across the country exceeded the 20th century average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The climate information from NOAA showed that 2015 was also the third-wettest year since 1895, with only 1973 and 1983 ranking as wetter years. Oklahoma and Texas were record wet for the year, with both states becoming drought-free for the first time since 2010.
In addition, there were 10 weather and climate disasters that caused at least $1 billion in losses, including a drought, two floods, five severe storm outbreaks, a wildfire and severe winter storm.
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Dec2015-temps.gif" caption="Statewide temperature rankings for December 2015. Any state with a "121" ranking had its warmest such month on record." credit="NOAA" alt="December 2015 Temperatures"]
The U.S. Climate Extremes Index, which measures how extreme the weather was across the country, was 70% above average for the year, which was the fourth-highest level in the 106 year record, and highest since 2012. Extremes in warm daytime and nighttime temperatures and one-day precipitation totals were much above average for the year, NOAA found.
The month of December helped boost annual temperatures, since it was the country's warmest such month on record, breaking the previous record by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit. A whopping 29 states in the eastern part of the country had the warmest December on record. No state was record cold, NOAA found.
#Florida crushed its warmest year on record by 0.9F in 2015- huge amount for a record for a marine state! #climate pic.twitter.com/YfzqNfzFkl— Eric Blake (@EricBlake12) January 7, 2016