U.S. climate normals: an overview

NOAA's National Climatic Data Center is responsible for producing official climate normals of numerous climatological variables every ten years. The primary variables include precipitation, air temperature, and derived products such as heating and cooling degree days. NOAA's official climate normals were last produced for the 1971-2000 period, but the development of the 1981-2010 climate normals is already well underway. In fact, the primary release will be available before the Applied Climate Conference convenes. Here, we will provide a general overview of the Climate Normals products, stressing key results and significant methodological changes from the last installment.