What's the climate really like, anywhere in the U.S.?
Thirty-year temperature, rain, snow, and comfort normals for 6,915 cities — the same NOAA baseline meteorologists use, made plain.
Free NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals for 6,915 US cities: temperatures, precipitation, snow, hourly humidity, and a 1–100 comfort score.
Cities Covered
6,915
U.S. States
50
Weather Stations
15,492
Data Period
1991-2020
The U.S. climate at a glance
Across 6,915 cities, 30-year-normal temperatures span about 66°F — from Utqiagvik Formerly Barrow 4 EN, AK near 13°F to the Sun Belt above 79°F — and that gap shapes where Americans heat, cool, and grow.
- 53°F
- national mean annual temperature across 6,915 cities
- 66°F
- spread from the coldest to the warmest U.S. city
- 35"
- average annual precipitation, all measured cities
- 1991–2020
- NOAA 30-year climate-normals window · 15,492 stations
Climate normals are 30-year averages, not forecasts — they describe the typical year, which any single year may run warmer, cooler, wetter, or drier than.
U.S. annual mean temperature by state
State-by-state annual mean temperature from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals — the 30-year averaging window the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses to define U.S. climate baseline. Cell color encodes the temperature; warmer reds are Gulf Coast and Sun Belt states, cooler blues are Northern Tier and Mountain West.
U.S. Warming vs Global, 1900-Present
Read methodologyU.S. land-mean temperature anomaly (NOAA NCEI) tracked against global anomaly (NASA GISTEMP land-ocean), with Paris Agreement 1.5°C and 2.0°C thresholds shown as reference lines. The U.S. has warmed roughly 18% faster than the global mean over the satellite era — a divergence visible in the spread between the two lines.
- United States (NOAA NCEI) +0.11 °C/decade
- Global (NASA GISTEMP) +0.11 °C/decade
- Paris Agreement thresholds 1.5°C / 2.0°C
Warmest Cities
View top 25Coldest Cities
View top 25Most Comfortable Climates
View top 25Browse by State
Alabama
103 cities
Alaska
175 cities
Arizona
169 cities
Arkansas
110 cities
California
363 cities
Colorado
217 cities
Connecticut
23 cities
Delaware
7 cities
Florida
165 cities
Georgia
122 cities
Hawaii
49 cities
Idaho
139 cities
Illinois
164 cities
Indiana
116 cities
Iowa
143 cities
Kansas
169 cities
Kentucky
95 cities
Louisiana
92 cities
Maine
79 cities
Maryland
42 cities
Massachusetts
68 cities
Michigan
203 cities
Minnesota
172 cities
Mississippi
91 cities
Missouri
164 cities
Montana
216 cities
Nebraska
172 cities
Nevada
115 cities
New Hampshire
52 cities
New Jersey
45 cities
New Mexico
168 cities
New York
173 cities
North Carolina
178 cities
North Dakota
119 cities
Ohio
128 cities
Oklahoma
189 cities
Oregon
180 cities
Pennsylvania
157 cities
Rhode Island
9 cities
South Carolina
100 cities
South Dakota
152 cities
Tennessee
146 cities
Texas
451 cities
Utah
171 cities
Vermont
41 cities
Virginia
120 cities
Washington
150 cities
West Virginia
99 cities
Wisconsin
200 cities
Wyoming
144 cities
Climate Guides
Learn how to read and use NOAA climate normals data.
Understanding Climate Normals
What 30-year averages are, how NOAA calculates them, and what the 1991-2020 baseline means.
Best Climates for Living
Temperature ranges, precipitation, sunshine, and humidity — what data reveals about the most livable US climates.
Reading Weather Data
How to interpret temperatures, precipitation totals, snow days, and sunshine hours on PlainClimate.
Best Climates for Retirement
Top US cities ranked by mild temps, low humidity, and sunshine — NOAA data for the 15 best retirement climates.
Understanding Extreme Weather
Heat waves, cold snaps, and precipitation extremes — US cities ranked by weather variability from NOAA data.
How to use this data
Climate normals answer one question well: what is a typical year like here?
- Planning a move or retirement? Compare comfort scores and frost-free days side by side. Browse rankings
- Gardening or building? Use a city’s frost dates, growing season, and degree days, not the regional average. Find your city
- Curious how fast it’s warming? See the U.S. anomaly tracked against the global mean. Warming vs normals
Normals describe the average 1991–2020 year; they are not weather forecasts and do not predict any single season.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are climate normals?
Climate normals are 30-year averages of weather observations, computed by NOAA for the period 1991-2020. They represent the "typical" weather conditions for a location and are updated every 10 years. These averages smooth out year-to-year variability to give a reliable picture of what weather to expect.
What data does PlainClimate provide?
PlainClimate provides monthly and annual temperature averages (high, low, mean), precipitation totals, snowfall amounts, frost dates, growing season length, heating/cooling degree days, comfort scores, and — for select cities — humidity, wind speed, and cloud cover data from hourly observations.
Where does this data come from?
All data comes from the NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 dataset, based on observations from over 15,492 weather stations across the United States for the 1991-2020 period.
What is the comfort score?
The comfort score (1-100) is a composite metric that combines temperature moderation, low extreme weather days, moderate precipitation, and humidity levels to rank how comfortable a city's year-round climate is for most people. Higher scores indicate more mild, pleasant climates.
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). For informational purposes only.
Research
Original analysis from our editorial team, every statistic derived from our own database. See all research.
Hottest US States by 1991-2020 Average Temperatures
Explore states like Alabama and Florida with average annual temps over 63°F, drawing from NOAA data on 50 states and 15,492 stations to aggregate temp, precip, and snow metrics.
ResearchElevation's Impact on Temperature in 6,915 US Cities
Analyze how elevation affects temps in cities like Denver at 1,609 meters and Alpine at 70 meters, using 1991-2020 data from 15,492 stations to correlate elevation with annual averages.