Weather and Climate

A Quick Look

Annual average temperature and annual total precipitation have increased across the Mid-Atlantic from 1895–2021.

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Snowy riverbank at Prince William Forest Park.

NPS

Importance and Issues

Weather is the day-to-day events of our atmosphere including heat and cold, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, humidity and evaporation, and wind. Annual cycles of weather for a given place are its climate.

Climate plays a crucial role in driving or regulating ecological processes. It helps determine which plant species occur where; how nutrients, water, and energy are cycled; and the relationships between soil, plants, and water availability. Climate can also affect the susceptibility of an ecosystem to disturbances, such as floods, drought, and wildfire.

Understanding how natural resources respond to past conditions provides clues about how they may respond in the future. In addition to temperature and precipitation, we are beginning to look at “water balance”—the amount of water available for use by plants.

Climate change is an incredibly significant stressor to natural systems in parks. The NPS Climate Change Response Program coordinates projections, modeling, and other analyses of climate change for national parks.

Duration:

6 minutes, 54 seconds

National Parks protect amazing places and organisms for all Americans. As climate changes, learn how Inventory & Monitoring helps parks track its effects on populations of Shenandoah salamander, life in the rocky intertidal zone, and brook trout in freshwater streams.

Monitoring Questions and Approach

• How does one year’s weather stack up against the historic record?

• What are the trends in weather and climate?

Weather Monitoring Briefs
Summaries of fieldwork and findings

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3823. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

Climate Change Monitoring Briefs
Summaries of fieldwork and findings

Source: Data Store Saved Search 1412. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

How NPS Monitors Weather and Climate

The National Park Service uses climate and weather data gathered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service (NOAA NWS).

The National Capital Region Network periodically provides short annual weather summaries (see below) that rely on NOAA analyses derived from the NClimDiv dataset and NOAA's Climate-at-a-glance program.