January through March of this year was the warmest such three-month period in the U.S. during the past 106 years of record keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA Director James Baker said, “The scientists are now telling us they can’t explain what we have seen without including a significant part of global warming. They have never said that before. This is a very significant fact — it’s a wake-up call, really.” NOAA also found that the nine months from June 1999 to March 2000 were the hottest such period on record, and the agency predicted that the increased temperatures would put many states at risk of drought in the coming months.
