Climate Stripes for U.S. States and Counties
A visual history of temperature and precipitation
Stripes by state
- Click on a state. The temperature image appears first. Click the image for the large version.
- Click one of the small arrows to see to the precipitation image. Click the image for the large version.
- D.C.'s images appear in both the state and county layer.
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Stripes by county
Click on an individual U.S. county for a pop-up window. The temperature image appears first. Click the small arrows to see to the precipitation image. Click the thumbnails for the full-size images.
Hawaii
All of the images for Hawaii are based on data from individual stations.
- The "Stripes by state" layer shows images from the station at Hilo on the Big Island.
- The "Stripes by county" has images from a station within a given Hawaiian county.
About the images
What do these images show?
The state and county-level climate stripes images show yearly temperature and precipitation from 1895–2023 compared to the 20th-century average—red bars for warm years, and blue for cool ones; green for wet years, and brown for dry ones. For Alaska, data go back to 1925; for Hawaii, 1955.
Each year is color coded based on how far above or below the 20 th -century average (1901-2000) it was. The years with the largest departures from average—known as anomalies—have the darkest colors. Years that were near average are lighter. Images can't be used to compare the rates of warming at different locations; the colors are scaled based on each location's range of values. For more information on anomalies, please refer to this FAQ page .
The image shown here displays climate stripes for all of the contiguous United States, with temperature on the top and precipitation on the bottom.
Climate stripes plots made by Jared Rennie, NOAA NCEI. Thanks to Ed Hawkins and Zeke Hausfather for inspiration.
Show me the data
Where do the data come from?
Data come from NOAA NCEI's Climate at a Glance page, which uses a 5-kilometer gridded data set, known as nClimgrid . This data set provides temperature and precipitation information for each month back to 1895 for the contiguous United States ("the Lower 48"). Annual estimates since 1895 are derived from the monthly data and aggregated at the county- and state-level for the continental United States, as well as the District of Columbia. For Alaska, data go back to 1925; for Hawaii, the images are based on data from individual stations dating back to 1955.
The Climate at a Glance page displays the yearly time series data as an interactive graph and an interactive table. It also allows you to see the overall trend, rank the years, and download the data in various formats. At the top of the page, you can switch from “Statewide Times Series” to “County Time Series” to get county-level data. Under “Parameter”, you can switch between average temperature and precipitation, as well as eight other climate variables, such as cooling degree days and drought severity. To get the yearly values, make sure the "Time Scale" is set to 12-month and the "Month" is set to December.
Future climate
With the Climate Explorer , you can explore projected future climate conditions across the United States down to the county level. Conditions you can explore include days with extreme heat or precipitation, changes in heating and cooling degree days, and frequency of high-tide flooding.
Observed number of days in Cook County, IL, with daytime high temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit from 1950-2013 (gray bars) and the range of projected number of days in coming decades under higher (red shading) and lower (blue shading) greenhouse gas emissions pathways. Graphic produced from the Climate Explorer, part of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.
Many parts of the United States that have scant historical experience with 100-degree days are likely to begin experiencing them routinely in coming decades if the world follows a higher greenhouse gas emissions pathway. Check out Cook County, Illinois (home to Chicago), in 2060, for example, or Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (home to Pittsburgh).
Screenshot from the Climate Explorer, part of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, showing maps of historic (left) and future (right) number of days with daytime high temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Total precipitation is projected to increase across many parts of the country, including over the Missouri and Upper Mississippi River watersheds during the spring flood season. Significant increases above historical conditions (1961-1990 baseline) are possible within a decade or two, even under a lower greenhouse gas emissions pathway.
Percent change in total spring precipitation by 2050 relative to the 1961-1990 average under a lower greenhouse gas emissions pathway (left) and a higher one (right). Green colors indicate increases relative to the past, and brown colors indicate decreases. Image from the Climate Explorer, part of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.
To view additional aspects of future U.S. climate change across the United States—including days with heavy downpours or tidal flooding—visit the Climate Explorer , part of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.
