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    • U.S. Supplemental Climate Normals (1981-2010)

    Metadata Updated: September 19, 2023

    The U.S. Annual Climate Normals for 1981 to 2010 are 30-year averages of meteorological parameters for thousands of U.S. stations located across the 50 states, as well as U.S. territories, commonwealths, the Compact of Free Association nations, and one station in Canada. NOAA Climate Normals are a large suite of data products that provide users with many tools to understand typical climate conditions for thousands of locations across the United States. 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 comprehensive U.S. Climate Normals dataset includes various derived products including 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). In addition to the standard set of normals, users also can find "agricultural normals", which are used in many industries including but not limited to construction, architecture, pest control, etc. These supplemental "agricultural normals" include frost-freeze date probabilities, growing degree day normals, probabilities of reaching minimum temperature thresholds, and growing season length normals. Users can access the data either by product or by station. Included in the dataset is extensive documentation to describe station metadata, filename descriptions, and methodology of producing the data. 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.

    Access & Use Information

    License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Date June 23, 2023
    Metadata Created Date February 3, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2023
    Reference Date(s) January 2, 2013 (publication), August 17, 2015 (revision)
    Frequency Of Update asNeeded

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from ncdc

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    NOAA 1981-2010 U.S. Climate Normals

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date June 23, 2023
    Metadata Created Date February 3, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2023
    Reference Date(s) January 2, 2013 (publication), August 17, 2015 (revision)
    Responsible Party NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (Point of Contact)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.ncdc:C00815
    Access Constraints Cite 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:TBD [access date]., Distribution liability: NOAA and NCEI make no warranty, expressed or implied, regarding these data, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA and NCEI cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data. If appropriate, NCEI can only certify that the data it distributes are an authentic copy of the records that were accepted for inclusion in the NCEI archives., Use liability: NOAA and NCEI cannot provide any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of furnished data. Users assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose.
    Bbox East Long -65.0
    Bbox North Lat 72.0
    Bbox South Lat 15.0
    Bbox West Long 172.0
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update asNeeded
    Graphic Preview Description NOAA 1981-2010 U.S. Climate Normals
    Graphic Preview File https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/metadata/images/1981-2010_ClimateNormals.jpg
    Graphic Preview Type JPEG
    Harvest Object Id 6027343a-2c27-4938-b3bc-c9ac5d204e77
    Harvest Source Id 2cb3ef77-1683-4c2a-9119-dc65e50917c6
    Harvest Source Title ncdc
    Licence
    Lineage Supplemental normals were originally made public October 2012. An expanded set of supplemental normals was released August 2015. 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).
    Metadata Language eng; USA
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[172.0, 15.0], [-65.0, 15.0], [-65.0, 72.0], [172.0, 72.0], [172.0, 15.0]]]}
    Progress completed
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 1981-01-01
    Temporal Extent End 2010-12-31

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