NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
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The above figure shows August 1999 temperature anomalies calculated from available in-situ stations using an 1880 - 1998 base period. Temperature anomalies are absent from several areas of the globe due to a lack of reporting stations. Several areas of the globe had temperatures above the long-term mean. A good deal of central and southern Europe around the Mediterranean basin into the Middle East were covered mainly by high pressure, which promoted the warm anomalies. In contrast, northern Scandinavia and the area around the U.S. Great Lakes were dominated by upper level troughs, which promoted cooler than average temperatures.
Note: Satellite data is unavailable this month due to processing problems; blended satellite/in-situ products should be available again in the September report.
Temperature
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Preliminary mean monthly temperature anomalies (using a base period 1880-1998) for August are shown in the figure to the left. August 1999 land and ocean temperatures were much lower than the record values recorded in 1998. Temperatures (for land and ocean) remained above the long-term mean for the 23rd year in a row. |
| The atmospheric circulation anomaly pattern for August 1999 is available for the Northern Hemisphere . See the U.S. Regional / Statewide Analyses pages and the Global Regional Analyses pages for more details on regional climate in the United States and throughout the world. |
Precipitation
larger imageThere are some distinct features on the precipitation anomaly map. The largest negative anomalies occurred over portions of eastern and south central United States. A special report on the drought is available. Drier that average conditions were also observed across portions of western India - the dryness in this region is due to the lack of the southwest monsoon in that portion of India. In contrast, flooding occurred across portions of eastern India and Bangladesh for the second month in a row. Portions of Korea and Japan in Asia, and the Sahel in Africa also had above average rainfall. Flooding was responsible for a number of deaths across these regions as well.
