What is happening across the United States is not normal. From coast to coast, this year’s weather has been unlike almost anything in history, and, as the year winds down, the data is starting to prove it.

On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an update on how U.S. weather is faring this year. The assessment: With record-setting wildfires, drought, floods, and storms, extreme weather this year has been relentless.

Out of 122 years of record-keeping, the first 10 months of 2017 rank as the third warmest such period in the U.S., behind 2012 and 2016. That’s right: The three warmest years ever measured in this country have happened in the past five years.

Dozens of cities are on pace for their warmest year on record, from Tucson, Arizona, to Miami. Only a single city with long-term weather records—Pendleton, Oregon—is on pace for even slightly cooler-than-average temperatures. Every state in the continental U.S. has been unusually warm in 2017.

But warm temperatures aren’t the only extreme this year: Several cities across the country—in California, Texas, Florida, New York, and 14 other states—are on pace for their wettest year in history, while parts of North Dakota and Montana will likely have their driest, with less than half as much rainfall as normal. Nationwide, the U.S. Climate Extremes Index—which combines indicators of drought, heavy rain, extreme temperatures, and hurricane impacts, and is maintained by NOAA—places this year as the second most extreme on record, next to 2012….more here