Understanding Climate

July temperatures are favored to be in the warmest third of the recent climate record for much of the U.S. In the drought-stricken Southwest, the odds of well below average precipitation are higher than the odds of an average or wetter-than-average July. 

May 2020 tied with May 2016 as the warmest May on record for the globe, continuing 2020’s streak of having every single month either be the warmest or second-warmest month on record

While May 2020 precipitation deficits drew parts of the West deeper into drought, parts of the Upper Midwest, Ohio Valley, and the Southeast got soaked. 

Cool conditions in Alaska and northern Canada related to a strong polar vortex were not enough to outweigh the extreme warmth across Europe and Asia in February 2020. Both the Northern Hemisphere and the globe as a whole had their second-warmest February on record.  

Based on historical climate data from thousands of stations across the United States, these maps show the warmest and coldest daytime high temperatures ever recorded at a given location on March 19—the astronomical first day of spring.

Although exact temperatures varied by latitude and elevation, January 2020 temperatures were above average for nearly every U.S. climate division of the Lower 48 states. 

NOAA’s 14th Arctic Report Card recounts the numerous ways that climate change continues to disrupt the polar region, including massive melt of the Greenland ice sheet and major shifts in the distribution of commercially valuable marine species.

Edited by NOAA scientists, the new report reveals scientists' advancing ability to quantify human imprint in climate.

The seasonal Antarctic ozone hole was the smallest on record in 2019, thanks to a warmer-than-average September. 

Alaska's natural monuments are of such gargantuan scale that the environment can seem immutable. But a new report from NOAA's Alaska RISA team documents profound changes the state has experienced in just the past five years.