2018 was second-warmest year on record in Arizona, US agency says

PHOENIX – Arizona experienced its second-warmest year on record in 2018, according a federal climate report published Wednesday.

The only hotter year in the state was 2017.

Arizona was one of 14 states, including neighboring New Mexico (third hottest) and California (fourth hottest), with top-10 years for average temperatures in 2018, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual report.

The agency’s records date to the 1880s.

Nationally, the average temperature last year was the 14th-hottest on record. It was the 22nd consecutive year for U.S. temperatures to be warmer than average.

Globally, it was the fourth-warmest year on record, according to data analyzed by the NOAA, NASA, the United Kingdom Met Office and the World Meteorological Organization.

NASA and NOAA climate scientists said even though 2018 was a tad cooler than the three previous years, that’s mostly due to random weather variations.

“Never mind the little wiggles from year to year. The trend is going relentlessly up, and it will continue to do so,” Potsdam Institute climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf said in an email to The Associated Press. “Those who live in denial of this fact are in denial of physics.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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