In 2024, the United States saw some **** inches of precipitation. The main forms of precipitation include hail, drizzle, rain, sleet, and snow. Since the turn of the century, 2012 was the driest year on record with an annual precipitation of **** inches. Regional disparities in rainfall Louisiana emerged as the wettest state in the U.S. in 2024, recording a staggering ***** inches (*** meters) of precipitation—nearly **** inches (ca. ** centimeters) above its historical average. In stark contrast, Nevada received only **** inches (ca. ** centimeters), underscoring the vast differences in rainfall across the nation. These extremes illustrate the uneven distribution of precipitation, with the southwestern states experiencing increasingly dry conditions that experts predict will worsen in the coming years. Drought concerns persist Drought remains a significant concern in many parts of the country. The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for the contiguous United States stood at ***** in December 2024, indicating moderate to severe drought conditions. This reading follows three years of generally negative PDSI values, with the most extreme drought recorded in December 2023 at *****.

Precipitation in the United States increased to 777.25 mm in 2024 from 738.01 mm in 2023. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United States Average Precipitation.

The majority of the wettest cities in the United States are located in the Southeast. The major city with the most precipitation is New Orleans, Louisiana, which receives an average of 1592 millimeters (62.7 inches) of precipitation every year, based on an average between 1981 and 2010.

In 2024, Louisiana recorded ***** inches of precipitation. This was the highest precipitation within the 48 contiguous U.S. states that year. On the other hand, Nevada was the driest state, with only **** inches of precipitation recorded. Precipitation across the United States Not only did Louisiana record the largest precipitation volume in 2024, but it also registered the highest precipitation anomaly that year, around 14.36 inches above the 1901-2000 annual average. In fact, over the last decade, rainfall across the United States was generally higher than the average recorded for the 20th century. Meanwhile, the driest states were located in the country's southwestern region, an area which – according to experts – will become even drier and warmer in the future. How does global warming affect precipitation patterns? Rising temperatures on Earth lead to increased evaporation which – ultimately – results in more precipitation. Since 1900, the volume of precipitation in the United States has increased at an average rate of **** inches per decade. Nevertheless, the effects of climate change on precipitation can vary depending on the location. For instance, climate change can alter wind patterns and ocean currents, causing certain areas to experience reduced precipitation. Furthermore, even if precipitation increases, it does not necessarily increase the water availability for human consumption, which might eventually lead to drought conditions.

Annual average precipitation represents the average total rainfall seen across the United States in each year. Data is sourced from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Center for Environmental information.

This metadata record describes the 30-year annual average of precipitation in millimeters (mm) and temperature (Celsius) during the period 1990–2019 for North America. The source data were produced by and acquired from DAYMET daily climate data (2020) and presented here as a series of two 1-kilometer resolution GeoTIFF files. An open source python code file used to process the data is also included.

This EnviroAtlas dataset provides the average annual precipitation by 12-digit Hydrologic Unit (HUC). The values were estimated from maps produced by the PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University. The original data was at the scale of 800 m grid cells representing average precipitation from 1981-2010 in mm. The data was converted to inches of precipitation and then zonal statistics were estimated for a final value of average annual precipitation for each 12 digit HUC. For more information about the original dataset please refer to the PRISM website at http://www.prism.oregonstate.edu/. This dataset was produced by the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).

In 2024, the state of Louisiana recorded the wettest precipitation anomaly across the contiguous United States, with around **** inches of precipitation above the ********* annual average. Ranking second was the state of Rhode Island, where rainfall was more than **** inches above the average. That same year, the annual precipitation anomaly across the U.S. amounted to some **** inches.

This statistic shows the ten major U.S. cities with the most rainy days per year between 1981 and 2010. Rochester, New York, had an average of about 167 days per year with precipitation. The sunniest city in the U.S. was Phoenix, Arizona, with an average of 85 percent of sunshine per day.

The National Forest Climate Change Maps project was developed to meet the need of National Forest managers for information on projected climate changes at a scale relevant to decision making processes, including Forest Plans. The maps use state-of-the-art science and are available for every National Forest in the contiguous United States with relevant data coverage. Currently, the map sets include variables related to precipitation and air temperature, including both Alaskan and lower 48 datasets. Data from the lower 48 were downloaded from here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/boise/AWAE/projects/national-forest-climate-change-maps.html, and Alaskan data came from here: https://www.snap.uaf.edu/tools/data-downloads. Historical data are compared with RCP 8.5 projections from the 2080s.A Raster Function Template is available in this service that will classify the data as originally intended by OSC. The RFT currently works in AGOL but not in ArcGIS Pro.

Cities were selected based on lengths of existing climate records, which start at least earlier than 1900. However, cities may miss substantial amounts of data during their periods of record. Each file provides available historical daily maximum and minimum temperature and daily precipitation data for one U.S. city. File was named by the city's current active weather station ID (Global Historical Climatology Network, GHCN ID). Each city may include records from one or multiple stations. Listed latitude and longitude for each city are from the city's current active weather station. Daily maximum and minimum temperature and daily precipitation were acquired from Applied Climate Information System (ACIS), developed by the NOAA Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC). The historical observations from ACIS belong to Global Historical Climatological Network - daily (GHCN-D) datasets. The included stations were based on NRCC’s “ThreadEx” project, which combined daily temperature and precipitation extremes at 255 NOAA Local Climatological Locations, representing all large and medium size cities in U.S. (see Owen et al. (2006). Accessing NOAA Daily Temperature and Precipitation Extremes Based on Combined/Threaded Station Records). Resources:

See included README file for more information.

Additional technical details and analyses can be found in: Lai, Y., & Dzombak, D. A. (2019). Use of historical data to assess regional climate change. Journal of climate, 32(14), 4299-4320. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0630.1

Other datasets from the same project can be accessed at: https://kilthub.cmu.edu/projects/Use_of_historical_data_to_assess_regional_climate_change/61538

ACIS database for historical observations: http://scacis.rcc-acis.org/

GHCN-D datasets can also be accessed at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/global-historical-climatology-network-daily/

• 2024 August updated -

  Temperature and precipitation records for 2022 and 2023 were added (using the records from GHCN-D at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/global-historical-climatology-network-daily/).

  Note that future updates may be infrequent.

• 2022 January updated -

  Temperature and precipitation records for 2021 were added (using the records from GHCN-D at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/global-historical-climatology-network-daily/).

• 2021 January updated -

  Temperature and precipitation records for 2020 were added (using the records from GHCN-D at: ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/).

• 2020 January updated -

  Temperature and precipitation records for 2019 were added (using the records from GHCN-D at: ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/).

  CITY_ID.csv files were already filled the missing values (represented with NA) to make to continuous time series from start of record to the end of 2019. CITY_ID_fill.csv files from the older version were deleted.

• 2019 June updated -

  Baltimore (USW00093721) data for 2018 was updated (previously 2018 data appeared to be NA). Original files for Baltimore were removed.

  The GHCN ID for Baltimore was updated to be the ID for Baltimore-Washington International AP. city_info file was updated accordingly.

Annual Climatological Summary contains historical monthly and annual summaries for over 8000 U.S. locations. Observing stations are located in the United States of America, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Pacific islands of the U.S. and associated nations. The major parameters are: monthly mean maximum, mean minimum and mean temperatures; monthly total precipitation and snowfall; departure from normal of the mean temperature and total precipitation; monthly heating and cooling degree days; number of days that temperatures and precipitation are above or below certain thresholds; and extreme daily temperature and precipitation amounts. Annual Climatological Summary is derived from the NCDC Summary of the Month dataset (DSI-3220).

The average for 2022 based on 12 countries was 1789 mm per year. The highest value was in Colombia: 3240 mm per year and the lowest value was in Argentina: 591 mm per year. The indicator is available from 1961 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2024, precipitation in the United States stood **** inches above the annual average recorded across the previous century (1901 to 2020). Except for 2022 and 2023, the past 10 years have all seen annual precipitation above the average, with the highest anomaly of the displayed period recorded in 2019, at nearly **** inches of rainfall.

In 2020, approximately **** percent of the United States' land area recorded unusually high annual precipitation. The previous year had recorded the largest area affected in the indicated period, with roughly ** percent of the country's land area registering much higher annual rainfall than expected based on historical data.

United States Maximum 5-day Rainfall: 25-year Return Level data was reported at 9.986 mm in 2050. United States Maximum 5-day Rainfall: 25-year Return Level data is updated yearly, averaging 9.986 mm from Dec 2050 (Median) to 2050, with 1 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 9.986 mm in 2050 and a record low of 9.986 mm in 2050. United States Maximum 5-day Rainfall: 25-year Return Level data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Environmental: Climate Risk. A 25-year return level of the 5-day cumulative precipitation is the maximum precipitation sum over any 5-day period that can be expected once in an average 25-year period.;World Bank, Climate Change Knowledge Portal (https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org);;

The NOAA Monthly U.S. Climate Gridded Dataset (NClimGrid) consists of four climate variables derived from the GHCN-D dataset: maximum temperature, minimum temperature, average temperature and precipitation. Each file provides monthly values in a 5x5 lat/lon grid for the Continental United States. Data is available from 1895 to the present. In March 2015, new Alaska data was included in the nClimDiv dataset. The Alaska nClimDiv data were created and updated using similar methodology as that for the CONUS. It includes maximum temperature, minimum temperature, average temperature and precipitation. In January 2025, the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) began summarizing the State of the Climate for Hawaii. This was made possible through a collaboration between NCEI and the University of Hawaii/Hawaii Climate Data Portal and completes a long-standing gap in NCEI's ability to characterize the State of the Climate for all 50 states. NCEI maintains monthly statewide, divisional, and gridded average temperature, maximum temperatures (highs), minimum temperature (lows) and precipitation data for Hawaii over the period 1991-2025.

This data release contains daily gridded data reflecting surface water input from rainfall, rain on snow (mixed), and snowmelt for the conterminous United States for water years 1990 to 2023 (1990/10/01 to 2023/09/30). This release also contains annual estimates of gridded input seasonality (an index reflecting whether surface water input occurs within a concentrated period or is equally distributed throughout the year), precipitation seasonality, average snowmelt, rainfall and rain on snow rates, and finally, annual totals of each input type. Average snowmelt, rainfall and rain on snow rates were computed using days where values were greater than zero. Daily data were generated using precipitation input from the gridMET dataset (Abatzoglou, 2013) and the University of Arizona snow water equivalent product (Broxton et al., 2019). Abatzoglou, J. T. (2013), Development of gridded surface meteorological data for ecological applications and modelling. Int. J. Climatol., 33: 121–131. Broxton, P., X. Zeng, and N. Dawson. (2019). Daily 4 km Gridded SWE and Snow Depth from Assimilated In-Situ and Modeled Data over the Conterminous US, Version 1. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/0GGPB220EX6A.

The U.S. Climate Normals are a large suite of data products that provide information about typical climate conditions for thousands of locations across the United States. Normals act both as a ruler to compare today’s weather and tomorrow’s forecast, and as a predictor of conditions in the near future. The official normals are calculated for a uniform 30 year period, and consist of annual/seasonal, monthly, daily, and hourly averages and statistics of temperature, precipitation, and other climatological variables from almost 15,000 U.S. weather stations.

NCEI generates the official U.S. normals every 10 years in keeping with the needs of our user community and the requirements of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and National Weather Service (NWS). The 1991–2020 U.S. Climate Normals are the latest in a series of decadal normals first produced in the 1950s. These data allow travelers to pack the right clothes, farmers to plant the best crop varieties, and utilities to plan for seasonal energy usage. Many other important economic decisions that are made beyond the predictive range of standard weather forecasts are either based on or influenced by climate normals.

The North American Dataset contains sets of Maximum, Minimum and Average Temperature data and Precipitation data that are either (1) raw (non-adjusted though flagged for possible quality issues), (2) adjusted due to time of observation bias (TOB) or (3) put through the Pairwise Homogenization Algorithm (PHA). These files contain North American stations and its data are measured in hundredths of degrees Celsius (without decimal place) for temperature and tenths of millimeters (without decimal place) for Precipitation. Each file includes the entire available Period of Record.