By GCN Staff May 05, 2021 This week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the 2021 Climate Normals, data on the 30-year average of weather and climate made from statistical calculations based on observations from approximately 15,000 federal weather stations and thousands of citizen scientists across the country. Every 10 years, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information generates the official U.S. Normals, which rely on daily and hourly recordings of temperature and precipitation as well as 500 other types of weather and climate statistics such as snowfall, frost and freeze dates. The Normals are used by the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Department of Agriculture, as well as private-sector meteorologists and forecasters, to supply data for aviation, energy, construction, infrastructure and agricultural companies.