State of the Climate in 2012. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

This is the 23rd edition of the annual State of the Climate series, from its origin as NOAA’s Climate Assessment, and the 18th consecutive year of its association with the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS). As always, its primary goals are to place the weather and climate events of the year into accurate historical perspective, and to provide information on the state, trends, and variability of the climate system’s many variables and phenomena.

For the first time in several years, this year [2012] was not dominated by a strong ENSO signal and its
consequences. The year clearly started in La Niña, then transitioned into neutral conditions. A brief
foray into warm conditions in the late boreal summer was captured differently by the many metrics and perspectives that look upon ENSO.