U.S. Annual/Seasonal Climate Normals (1981-2010)
Normals Annual/Seasonal
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The U.S. Annual Climate Normals for 1981 to 2010 are 30-year averages of meteorological
parameters that provide users with many tools to understand typical climate conditions
for thousands of locations across the United States, as well as U.S. territories,
commonwealths, the Compact of Free Association nations, and one station in Canada.
As many NWS stations as possible are used, including those from the NWS Cooperative
Observer Program (COOP) Network as well as some additional stations that have a Weather
Bureau Army-Navy (WBAN) station identification number, including stations from the
Climate Reference Network (CRN). THe Annual Climate Normals dataset includes various
derived products such as daily air temperature normals (including maximum and minimum
temperature normal, heating and cooling degree day normal, and others), precipitation
normals (including snowfall and snow depth, percentiles, frequencies and other), and
hourly normals (all normal derived from hourly data including temperature, dew point,
heat index, wind chill, wind, cloudiness, heating and cooling degree hours, pressure
normals). All data utilized in the computation of the 1981-2010 Climate Normals were
taken from the ISD Lite (a subset of derived Integrated Surface Data), the Global
Historical Climatology Network-Daily dataset, and standardized monthly temperature
data (COOP). These source datasets (including intermediate datasets used in the computation
of products) are also archived at the NOAA NCDC.
Users must cite this dataset as: Anthony Arguez, Imke Durre, Scott Applequist, Mike
Squires, Russell Vose, Xungang Yin, and Rocky Bilotta (2010). NOAA's U.S. Climate
Normals (1981-2010). [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental
Information. DOI:10.7289/V5PN93JP [access date].
- doi:10.7289/V5PN93JP
- NCEI DSI 9641_01
- gov.noaa.ncdc:C00821
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Distributor | Customer Engagement Branch DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce 1-828-271-4800 ncei.orders@noaa.gov |
Dataset Point of Contact | Customer Engagement Branch DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce 1-828-271-4800 ncei.orders@noaa.gov |
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Data Presentation Form: |
Digital table - digital representation of facts or figures systematically displayed,
especially in columns |
Dataset Progress Status | Complete |
Data Update Frequency: | As needed |
Supplemental Information: |
Includes Supplemental Normals released 2012-10-15
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Purpose: | Climate Normals are a suite of products that provide users with the means to understand typical climate conditions for thousands of locations across the United States. These Normals are intended to be used for applications requiring an annual or seasonal timescale. |
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Time Period: | 1981-01-01 to 2010-12-31 |
Spatial Bounding Box Coordinates: |
N: 72.0
S: 15.0
E: -65.0
W: 172.0
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Lineage Statement | NOAA's 1981-2010 Climate Normals are the newest iteration of the U.S. Climate Normals. Though previous versions of the normals are still available from the archive, the 1981-2010 Climate Normals should be used for all current applications. Computation of the NOAA Climate Normals is in accordance with the recommendation of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), of which the United States is a member. While the WMO mandates each member nation to compute 30-year averages of meteorological quantities at least every 30 years (1931 - 1960, 1961 - 1990, 1991 - 2020, etc.), the WMO recommends a decadal update, in part to incorporate newer weather stations. Further, the NOAA NCDC has a responsibility to fulfill the mandate of Congress "... to establish and record the climatic conditions of the United States." This responsibility stems from a provision of the Organic Act of October 1, 1890, which established the Weather Bureau as a civilian agency (15 U.S.C. 311). |
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Last Modified: 2016-05-05
For questions about the information on this page, please email:
ncdc.metadata@noaa.gov