NOAA 1991–2020 U.S. Normals

During 2020, the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) will be preparing to calculate the new U. S. 30-year climate normals for the period 1991-2020. This period also corresponds to the World Meteorological Organization 30-year normals cycle, so the entire world will be updating normals simultaneously in 2021. Therefore, it is a good time to review what is anticipated for the production of conventional normals products, and some of the anticipated additions and improvements in our processes. Monthly, daily, and hourly normals standard sets for stations will be described. Planned development work to expand normals beyond typical station data sources will be discussed. One of the new types of normals that will be under development will be high spatial resolution gridded monthly and daily temperature and precipitation normals. Climate normals products derived from remote sensing and reanalysis model data sources are also under development. Finally, extension of normals to alternate time frames for best use by various sectors will be discussed. There is still time to allow for receipt of additional requirements and suggestions for normals improvements and/or new normals products.