May 2021 was mild across much of the contiguous U.S., with dry conditions widespread across the West, the Northern Plains, the Ohio Valley, and the Mid-Atlantic.
Every ten years, NOAA releases an analysis of U.S. weather of the past three decades, calculating average values for temperature, rainfall, and other climate conditions that have come to represent the new “normals” of our changing climate.
A panel of hurricane experts reviewed more than 90 research studies on the observed and projected changes in tropical cyclones for an updated summary of what the science says about the human influence on these devastating storms.
The most recent maximum (September 2020) was above the long-term average, and the most recent minimum (February 2021) was below the long-term average, but neither set a record. Antarctic sea ice has greater year-to-year variability than the Arctic, and little evidence of long-term change.
