---
id: communication/climate-local
about:
  label: Climate Local
  description: >-
    Climate Central's pages for about 250 U.S. cities and every state, each
    showing how that place's temperature, rainfall and extreme heat have changed
    since 1970, with downloadable local graphics.
  tags:
    - local climate trends
    - cities
    - extreme heat
    - local graphics
    - Climate Central
tool:
  form: 'free web pages, one per city or state'
  group: Showing
  homepage: 'https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-local'
  licence: >-
    Climate Central terms of use: free for any non-commercial use, for
    commercial news use by media organizations and for educational use by
    accredited educational bodies, with credit (and a link when used online);
    other commercial use, notably for financial products, needs written
    permission; no bulk downloading or screen scraping
  cost: free
open:
  source: unknown
  data: partly
  api: unknown
  participation: unknown
  licence: Climate Central terms of use
  note: >-
    On the Birmingham page each figure names its data source; five of the eight
    come from NOAA ACIS.
domains:
  - climate
  - places
relations:
  - predicate: built_on
    target: communication/climate-shift-index
    note: each city page counts this year's days scoring 2 or higher on the index
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: Climate change's effect on local areas | Climate Central
      url: 'https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-local'
    - title: 'Climate change in Birmingham, Alabama | Climate Central'
      url: 'https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-local/41393'
    - title: >-
        U.S. cities and states with localized climate information and data |
        Climate Central
      url: 'https://app.climatecentral.org/climate-local/locations'
    - title: Terms of use | Climate Central
      url: 'https://www.climatecentral.org/what-we-do/legal'
  created: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed_by: >-
    Claude, from the sources listed; one city page (Birmingham, Alabama) was
    read in full, as it stood on 2026-10-23
  status: draft
---
Climate Local is a set of web pages from Climate Central, one for each of a list of U.S. cities and states, that says how climate change shows up in that place.[^1] A reader searches for their city, or picks it or their state from the list.[^1,3] Climate Central does not give a total; counting the list for this page on 2026-10-23 found 247 cities, grouped under the 50 states and the District of Columbia, each of which has its own page.[^3] Climate Central says the coverage is large but limited, and suggests a nearby city or the state page when a city is missing.[^1,3]

The page for Birmingham, Alabama shows what a reader gets. At the top are three numbers, each with its data source named[^2]:

- average annual temperature up 3.9°F since 1970 (NOAA ACIS)[^2]
- annual precipitation up 3.6 inches since 1970 (NOAA ACIS)[^2]
- 58 days in 2026, as of 15 October, with temperatures made at least twice as likely by climate change ([Climate Shift Index](/communication/climate-shift-index/))[^2]

Then come the threats for the current season, which on that day was fall[^2]:

- 14 more days of extreme heat a year since 1970, counting days hotter than 95% of local temperatures in 1991 to 2020, which for Birmingham means above 93.15°F (NOAA ACIS)[^2]
- 26 billion-dollar hurricanes in Alabama from 1980 to 2025 (U.S. Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters)[^2]
- a 37% rise from 1958 to 2021 in the rainfall of the heaviest 1% of rain events each year across the Southeast (Fifth National Climate Assessment)[^2]
- fall average temperatures up 3.7°F since 1970 (NOAA ACIS)[^2]

Below that, short cards connect the numbers to everyday matters (cooling schools, downpours, fall colour, warmer fall days, hurricanes, food prices), each linking to a fuller story in [Climate Matters](/communication/climate-matters/).[^2] At the foot of the page is a library of graphics localized for the city, for every season, which can be filtered by keyword and downloaded for use under Climate Central's terms.[^2,4] These allow any non-commercial use, commercial news use by media organizations and educational use by accredited educational bodies, with credit and, online, a link.[^4] Other commercial use, financial products in particular, needs written permission, and bulk downloading and scraping are forbidden.[^4]

Each page puts long-term records for one city next to a daily attribution count and a short list of what those changes mean there, in figures a reader can check against the named sources.