SCOTT FALLON / NORTHJERSEY.COM – New Jersey had one of its warmest years on record in 2021, continuing a global trend of rising temperatures that is fueling more intense storms like the kind that rocked the Garden State last year.

The statewide annual temperature of 55.2 degrees last year is tied with 1998 for the third-highest in more than a century of record-keeping, according to a report released this week by the Office of the State Climatologist …