Print article WASHINGTON - The official calculation of what constitutes “normal” U.S. climate has been updated - and to virtually nobody’s surprise, it’s a warmer picture than ever before. On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an updated set of climate averages for the contiguous United States based on the 30-year period from 1991 to 2020, including more than 9,000 daily reporting stations. It refers to these averages as “climate normals,” and updates them once every decade. Compared to previous 30-year periods, the climate has turned unambiguously warmer. “We’re really seeing the fingerprints of climate change in the new normals,” Michael Palecki, manager of NOAA’s effort to update the climate normals, said at an April news conference. “We’re not trying to hide that, we’re in fact reflecting that.”
NOAA released the new climate normal for the US showing a warmer nation
The updated climate averages are based on the 30-year period from 1991-2020
The US s yearly normal temperature is now 53.3 degree - 1 degree warmer
However, the increase is on par with the average global warming
Fargo, North Dakota was the only one too cool by a tenth of a degree
Charlottesville, Virginia had biggest jump of 1.5 degrees in normal temperatures
Meteorologists adjust for ‘new normal’ temperatures. Blame climate change.
In addition to temperatures, data show changes in the parts of the United States that are getting drier and the parts that are getting wetter.
By SETH BORENSTEINAssociated Press
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The remains of a carp are seen on the dry lake bed of O.C. Fisher Lake in San Angelo, Texas, in 2011. According to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday, the new United States normal is not just hotter, but wetter in the eastern and central parts of the nation and considerably drier in the West than just a decade earlier. Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press