Arizona Public Radio | Your Source for NPR News
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Your resource for the latest regional forecast, storm information, seasonal climate statistics and more!

America's New Normal: A Degree Hotter Than Two Decades Ago

AP Photo/John Locher, File

America's normal temperature is now a degree hotter than just 20 years ago.

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Tuesday released climate figures showing the nation's new normal temperature keeps getting hotter. They also show normal is wetter in the eastern and central U.S. while drier in the West. Meteorologists every decade update normal climate numbers for the United States based on 30 years of data. The figures show climate change at work. The U.S. normal annual temperature is now 53.3 degrees Fahrenheit based on data from 1991 to 2020. Normal was 52.3 degrees just 20 years earlier.

Related Content