How Record Warmth Is Rewriting The West’s Water Future

America just finished up one of its warmest springs since the late 19th century, according to a new government report.

Only 2012 was warmer

The March through May period was the second warmest spring on record in the Lower 48 states since 1895, according to data released Monday by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

This three-month temperature, calculated using all available data over the Lower 48 states, was almost 5 degrees warmer than the 20th century average, according to NOAA/NCEI.

Only March-May 2012 was warmer, by only about 0.4 degrees.

These states were record warm

Looking at the map below, you can see how the Lower 48 had one of its warmest springs.

Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas each had their record warmest spring in 2026.

Every other state colored in darker orange on the map below had one of its 10 warmest springs. Thirteen of those, including California, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia just missed their warmest spring.

Alaska was the lone holdout, shivering through its coldest spring in 13 years.

These cities experienced record warm, too

About two dozen major weather reporting stations had their record warmest spring, as well.

That included Charlotte, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Las Vegas, Nashville, Phoenix and Sacramento, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

Several dozen more cities had one of their top 3 warmest springs, including Atlanta, Austin, Boise, Cincinnati, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Tampa.

March, April were most memorable

Spring kicked off with the Lower 48's record hottest March, paced by one of the most extreme March heat waves on record in the U.S.

America's hottest March temperature was tied or topped on five separate days from March 18-25, with highs topping 110 degrees.

Seventeen states tied or set new statewide March heat records during this historic heat wave.

The following month, eight states from Missouri to Virginia had their record hottest Aprils.

Spring's precipitation was weird, too

Temperatures weren't the only bizarre thing about spring weather in the U.S.

As the map below shows, Michigan had its wettest spring in 132 years.

It started with a record mid-March snowstorm in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin. Then in April, rounds of heavy rain falling on heavy snowpack triggered record flooding in parts of northern Michigan and northeast Wisconsin, washing out roads, prompting evacuations and flooding homes.

But then it largely stopped raining in May. Michigan ended up with its ninth driest May and Wisconsin its fourth driest May. Milwaukee had its record driest May (0.36 inches) immediately after its record wettest April (9.49 inches).

Delaware and North Carolina each had their third driest spring.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.​