Four out of the last five years in Decorah have been much warmer than normal

You might believe in global warming; you might doubt it.  But in the Northeast Iowa portion of the globe, 2015 was definitely warmer, continuing a trend for four of the last five years.

Decorah weather observer Richard Bernatz says 2015 was the 10th warmest year in Decorah, surpassing 2011, which was the 15th warmest year in Decorah, but falling behind 2012, which set the record with an average temperature of 51.6 degrees.  2015's average temperature was 48.8 degrees, which was 2.4 degrees warmer than average.

Eight out of 2015's 12 months had higher than normal average temperatures, with December, November and September relatively the warmest.

2015 was slightly wetter than average.  Precipitation totaled 35.58 inches, which was 2.68 inches more than the average.  Seven months were drier than average, but June and December, with a combined total of 11.94 inches of precipitation, helped to make 2015 the 40th wettest year out of the 116 years for which complete records were kept.