U.S. Climate Normals: 30-Year Averages from 15,000 Weather Stations

1991–2020 is the latest uniform 30-year period used to calculate official U.S. climate normals. The data products provide annual, seasonal, monthly, daily, and hourly averages and statistics for temperature, precipitation, and other variables from almost 15,000 U.S. weather stations. These normals are produced by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and are updated decennially.

Use Cases

• Predict seasonal energy demand based on typical temperature and precipitation averages.
• Plan agricultural crop varieties and planting schedules based on climate normals.
• Compare current weather or forecast data to long-term typical conditions.
• Inform travel and tourism planning with expected climate conditions for specific locations.

Strengths

• Data is calculated for a uniform 30-year period, providing a stable baseline.
• Covers almost 15,000 U.S. weather stations, suggesting broad spatial coverage.
• Includes multiple temporal aggregations: annual, seasonal, monthly, daily, and hourly.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Collection Method

Calculated averages and statistics from weather station observations.

Time Range

1991–2020 (latest normals period).

Freshness

Normals are updated every 10 years; the latest period is 1991–2020.

Geography

United States.