There's a general impression that the last decade was relatively mild around here weatherwise. And in fact, about 75% of all the months in the 1990s were warmer-than-average. And if we consider only the last two years or so, just 2 months have been colder-than-average.

One thing to keep in mind when interpreting these statistics: the averages we use for comparison - the so-called "normals" - are computed from 30 years of data. And right now those 30 years are 1961 to 1990. The 1960s was a relatively cool decade, and that makes the recent warmth stand out even more in comparison.

We'll be updating the "normals" at the end of this year, using 1971 to 2000 data. Without the cooler 1960s data in the "normals", it'll be interesting to see whether we continue to have as many warmer-than-average months.