Friday, July 15, 2011

Warmer Weather Is Officially the New Normal

If you’ve been wondering whether your local summers are warmer or wetter than before, now you can look it up.


The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its new United States weather “normals,” which are updated every 10 years. The latest show a general warming trend — hardly a surprise in itself, but the data’s beauty is in its fine-grained detail.

Each normal reflects average climatological conditions for the past 30 years, and is based on readings from some 7,500 stations across the country. The latest cover the period from 1981-2010, and replace the 1971-2000 normals.

Readings cover everything from dew points to cloud cover to wind speed and, of course, temperature. Changes in temperature are especially striking in two measurements considered emblematic of winter and summer weather: Average minimum temperature in January and average maximum temperature in July. More >>>

Location: Cayman Islands