PlainClimate

PlainClimate

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Publisher of NOAA climate normals, place by place

Background

PlainClimate publishes NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals for U.S. places with a NOAA station that keeps them, naming the station, its distance and its elevation on each page. It is independent, accepts no payment from the places it covers, and takes every figure from a named public file (NOAA, NASA POWER, the USDA 2023 zone listings and the Census Bureau).

What it publishes

Each place page carries the normal high and low of every month and day, rain and snow, frost dates at three probabilities, the plant hardiness zone by the USDA's method, degree days, the station's records and how recent years compare with the normal. State pages carry NOAA's statewide series; rankings and analyses state their measure and method.

How it is checked

The data editor's checks, what each covers and when they last ran, are listed on the methodology page. Figures are compared with NOAA's files, records are checked against known values, and every kind of page is opened at five screen widths in both themes before each release.

What it is not

Normals describe a typical year at one station. They are not forecasts, and they are not advice on where to live or when to plant; each place page links the National Weather Service forecast for the place.

Feedback

A figure that looks wrong is traced to its NOAA source, fixed in the pipeline so the fix reaches every page, and listed on the corrections page with its date. Contact page · hello@plainclimate.com

Areas of focus

  • NOAA 1991-2020 climate normals
  • frost dates and growing seasons
  • station records and recent years
  • statewide climate series

Contact and identity