“There’s a huge difference in temperature over time, as we go from cooler climates in the early part of the 20th century to ubiquitously warmer climates,” he said. The maps showing the new temperature normals every 10 years, compared with the 20th century average, get increasingly redder. “We’re really seeing the fingerprints of climate change in the new normals,” Dr. That is, they show how the climate has changed in the United States, as it has across the world, as a result of emissions of heat-trapping gases over more than a century. “What we’re trying to do with climate normals is put today’s weather in the proper context,” said Michael Palecki, who manages the project at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.īecause the normals have been produced since 1930, they also say a lot about the weather over a much longer term.
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They come in handy, too, if you want to know how to pack for Oshkosh, say, in October, or if you’re past the last frost date and wondering if it’s safe to put out some tomato seedlings. The normals - which are available on annual, seasonal, monthly, daily and even hourly timescales - are invaluable to farmers, energy companies and other businesses, water managers, transportation schedulers and any one who plans their activities in coming weeks or months based on what is likely, weather-wise. Updated every 10 years, the normals are used by TV meteorologists when they tell you that today’s blisteringly high temperature was 10 degrees above normal for that location and date, for instance, or that a single heavy downpour brought more rain than is typical for an entire month. Source: NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information
Note: Data not available for Alaska and Hawaii.