2021 was a year full of weather extremes.
From record breaking Arctic air in February to a March blizzard to incredible warmth and drought during the second half of the year.
Even though Southern Colorado saw it's fair share of cold and snow, on the national front, 2021 will go down as one of the warmest on record.
According to the latest report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this past year was the fourth warmest.
In the United States, seven of the top-10 warmest years have now occurred in the 2000s, with the top six all happening since 2012.
2021 also brought our country the hottest summer and third hottest fall on historical record.
Closer to home, we're also making headlines today in Colorado thanks to a report from NOAA stating that the last six months of 2021 were the warmest in our 127 year record.
For Colorado Springs, our average temperature of 52.0 degrees is warmer than 2020 and is now the fourth warmest on record.
Rain and snow were fairly abundant during the first part of the year, followed by an extremely dry period of weather.
All in all, we were dry, but not too far from the average.
Most of our snow fell from January to May, with only 0.4" of snow reported from September to December.
That all came in one fell swoop on December 31st, making it the latest first snowfall on record. It smashed our previous record of December 2nd.
In Pueblo, we came out from 2021 warmer and wetter than average.
The average monthly temperature of 54.2 degrees at the airport is now the 13th warmest on record.
Much like 2020, Pueblo once again came up short of average in the snow department.
Looking ahead to 2022...a La Nina pattern is expected to continue into the first part of the year, with the Climate Prediction Center suggesting warmer and drier conditions through at least the end of March.
