Alternative normals, version 1.0

NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has recently released Version 1.0 of Optimal Normals, a suite of new data products that provides alternatives to the official 30-year NOAA normals that are produced only once per decade. Optimal Normals of monthly temperatures (maximum, minimum, and mean) were first released in June 2009 via a webcast to energy industry representatives, many of whom provided beta testing feedback. Currently, the values are up-to-date through 2008 and will be updated once per year. Optimal Normals are currently comprised of three distinct alternatives to the traditional 30-year normals: Annual Updates, OCN, and Hinge Fit normals. Here, we provide a brief summary of Optimal Normals, analyze the latest results, and provide access information.