Climate.gov Data Snapshots: Precipitation - Three-Month Outlook

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  data 06/23/2025 08:05:PM
Climate_gov_ Data Snapshots.pdf application/pdf 2.5 MB 06/17/2025 04:48:PM
Precipitation - Three-Month Outlook _ NOAA Climate.gov.pdf application/pdf 949.9 KB 06/17/2025 04:48:PM

Project Citation: 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate.gov Data Snapshots: Precipitation - Three-Month Outlook. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-06-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E233224V2

Project Description

Project Title:  View help for Project Title Climate.gov Data Snapshots: Precipitation - Three-Month Outlook
Summary:  View help for Summary
Q: What are the chances that total precipitation will be below, near, or above average over the next three months?

A: Colors show where total precipitation has an increased chance of being higher or lower than usual during the next three months. The darker the shading, the greater the chance for the indicated condition. White areas have equal chances for precipitation totals that are below, near, or above the long-term average (median) for the next three months.

Q: How do experts develop these forecasts?

A: Climate scientists base future climate outlooks on current patterns in the ocean and atmosphere. They examine projections from climate and weather models and consider recent trends. They also check historical records to see how much precipitation fell when patterns were similar in the past.

Q: Why do these data matter?

A: Water managers, farmers, and forestry officials have an intense interest in precipitation outlooks. They use them to help make decisions about water resources, irrigation, and fire-fighting resources. Flood forecasters also use these outlooks. They want to know as early as possible if an area is likely to receive more precipitation than usual.

Q: How did you produce these snapshots?

A: Data Snapshots are derivatives of existing data products: to meet the needs of a broad audience, we present the source data in a simplified visual style. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) produces the source images for monthly temperature outlooks. To produce our images, we run a set of scripts that access mapping layers from CPC, re-project them into desired projections at various sizes, and output them with a custom color bar.

References
One-Month to Three-Month Climate Outlooks.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/forecasts/


This upload includes two additional files:
* Precipitation - Three-Month Outlook _NOAA Climate.gov.pdf is a screenshot of the main Climate.gov site for these snapshots (https://www.climate.gov/maps-data/data-snapshots/data-source/precipitation-three-month-outlook)
* Cimate_gov_ Data Snapshots.pdf is a screenshot of the data download page for the full-resolution files.

Original Distribution URL:  View help for Original Distribution URL https://www.climate.gov/data/Precipitation--ThreeMonth--Outlook--US/

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms climate; climate change; precipitation; forecasting models
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1/21/2016 – 5/15/2025 (Monthly images from 2016 to present)
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) images: photographs, drawings, graphical representations
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes Data is divided in to folders by image resolution -- full size (zip), kml (zip), small (png), and large (png). Occasionally there may be one image missing in a particular size but available in another size.

Data downloaded from climate.gov 6/15/2025 - 6/16/2025 (small, large, and full resolution) and 6/21/2025 (others).


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Published Versions

V2 [2025-06-23]

V1 [2025-06-19]

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