Everybody can say that 2018 was a very interesting year in a lot of aspects of life, weather included in this bunch. From fires to blizzards, the United States was hit with all kinds of severe weather.

In January of last year, New York beat the record for coldest first week of the year. Previously held at 21.4 degrees, 2018 easily crushed the record with a frigid 16.4 degrees. New Orleans also broke a cold weather record. Its record was beat with by an average temperature of 39.6 degrees.

In March, according to the USNIFC, United States National Interagency Fire Center, located in Boise, Idaho, 2.1 million acres of land had burned due to wildfires. That 2.1 million acres is six times the average amount for the first quarter of the year.

March was also home to Winter Storms Riley, Quinn, Skylar, and Toby, which brought chaos to the east coast for three weeks. These storms were almost accompanied by a fifth storm that had began to develop.

Let’s move onto tropical storms and hurricanes. In September, Tropical Storm Alberto was able to make its way to the middle of Michigan. This was the fourth consecutive year a tropical storm formed before hurricane season officially began. August wasn’t actually hit with any hurricanes this year, making it the first time since 2013. September was marked as a first since 2008 for having four storms active and named at once.

One of the things that stood out the most at the end of 2018 was the California Camp Fire. Though wildfires are normal in the west, the Camp Fire was listed as the sixth most deadly US wildfire recorded. It destroyed over 18,000 buildings, killed 86, and burned over 150,000 acres. The fire started on November 8, and raged on for 17 days, reaching 100 percent containment on the 25.

“In 2018 it seemed like we didn’t get a fall because the temperature kept going into the 90’s, then shot right down to the 40’s. We didn’t get much snow, either,” said Marie Wallenhorst.

I think that everyone can agree on wishing for better weather this year.