Illinois’ average temperature last year was about two and a half degrees above normal. State climatologist Jim Angel says 2016 started off with a warm winter thanks to el-Nino.
"Those tend to give us fairly mild winter conditions," he says. "Very warm temperatures, kind of on the dry side. That kind of explains how it happened during the winter season, but as far as the rest of the year, it just kind of stayed warm. Even after the el-Nino kind of went away, the warm weather remained."
Angel says last year’s precipitation came in at nearly 40 inches. This is slightly below normal.