If you had to guess which year was warmer, 2010 or 1988, I think most people that were around in the late 1980s would say 1988.  Of course, by me asking the question, most of you probably know where I am going with this, but yes, 2010 was the warmer of the two years by 0.1 degree.  2010, like many of the past 20 years recorded no extreme heat.  Since our current wet cycle began in 1993, extreme heat has been rare.  The warmest temperature of 2010 was a mere 95 degrees that occurred on May 29.  Many recent years have finished in the Top 10 warmest on record, including 2010 that finished as the 9th warmest since 1881.

These years have been warm not so much because of the high temperatures over the year, but rather the low temperatures.  The cloud cover associated with our abundant precipitation has kept low temperatures from the extremes seen in previous decades.

This has been particularly noticeable during some of our Spring and Autumn seasons since 2000.