The NOAA updates its 30-year "climate normals," and yeah, that tracks

Last week, we relayed NASA’s updated unidentified flying object unidentified aerial phenomena FAQ page, which essentially boiled down to, “Look, we’ve seen the videos, too. We’ll let you know when we do, so stop asking us.” Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration got around to its own adjustments for U.S. climate expectations, and guess what? Like NASA’s info, the data is as unsurprising as it still is goddamn terrifying.

According to the NOAA, the nation’s 30-year-spanning “climate averages” have been regularly updated every decade since 1901 to take stock of U.S. temperatures, rainfall amounts, and “other conditions.” As BoingBoing notes, these “normals” are made available to help a “farmers, energy companies, water managers, transportation schedulers, and other businesses in their planning” for what might lay ahead over the next few years.

The NOAA’s predictions? C’mon. You already know the horrifying, runaway train of an answer: Things are getting real hot and real wild… and not in any semblance of a good way. “The influence of long-term global warming is obvious,” the NOAA says, which is about as no-nonsense as you can get for a governmental organization. Since 1991, pretty much the entire continental United States has seen over 1-degree warmer temperatures on average. Additionally, precipitation amounts are kind of all over the place, as “drier areas and wetter areas shift back and forth without an obvious pattern.”

“At least some of that wetness relative to the 20th-century average is linked to the overall climate warming and ‘wetting’ of the atmosphere that’s occurred as rising temperatures cause more water to evaporate from the ocean and land surface,” explains the NOAA, which is oh-so-reassuring. Can’t wait to see what the agency has in store for us come 2031…

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