USDA Releases Climate Quick Reference Guides

USDA’s Climate Hubs and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are helping to meet that need for more accurate county-level data by providing Climate Quick Reference Guides for agricultural producers and landowners seeking basic and easily usable climate information.

The Climate Quick Reference Guides, first published in July 2022 and updated in August 2023,  are now available on farmers.gov. They offer a simple way for users to view historic and projected weather and climate change information at the state and county levels. The easy-to-use guides show key data changes in climate most impactful to agricultural production in the local areas including max temperatures and precipitation amounts by season.

Guides are available for almost every county nationwide following a two-year effort by the Climate Hubs and NRCS.

Those interested in using the guides can access their state-level data by clicking on their state or searching for it by name. If they are interested in accessing county level, they must first select a state and then click the “view counties” button before either searching for the county by name or selecting it on the map. The requested data can then be viewed by clicking the “get guide” button. 

The Climate Quick Reference Guides can be especially useful when NRCS conservationists are working with farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners to address natural resource concerns on their land and implement climate-smart agriculture and forestry activities. The guides use layers of science-based maps and graphs to show temperature, precipitation and even crop loss data. The data can in turn help the public make informed decisions for their farms, ranches, or forest lands.