| CA DWR | California Department of Water Resources |
| CISESS | Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies |
| CMIP5 | Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 |
| CO2 | carbon dioxide |
| CONUS | contiguous United States |
| COOP | Cooperative Observer Network |
| DC | District of Columbia |
| EF | Enhanced Fujita Scale |
| F | Fahrenheit |
| F | Fujita Scale |
| FEMA | Federal Emergency Management Agency |
| GCM | global climate model |
| GCRA | Global Change Research Act |
| GHCN-Daily | Global Historical Climatology Network–Daily |
| GHCN-Monthly | Global Historical Climatology Network–Monthly |
| GLERL | Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory |
| GMSL | global mean sea level |
| hPa | hectopascal |
| IPCC AR5 | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report |
| mph | miles per hour |
| MRCC | Midwestern Regional Climate Center |
| NADA | North American Drought Atlas |
| NCA | National Climate Assessment |
| NCA3 | Third National Climate Assessment |
| NCA4 | Fourth National Climate Assessment |
| NCEI | National Centers for Environmental Information |
| nClimDiv | NOAA NCEI’s Climate Divisional Dataset |
| NEMAC | National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center |
| NESDIS | National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service |
| NFIP | National Flood Insurance Program |
| NOAA | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
| NOS | National Ocean Service |
| NPS | National Park Service |
| NRCS | Natural Resources Conservation Service |
| NSIDC | National Snow and Ice Data Center |
| NWCC | National Water and Climate Center |
| NWIS | National Water Information Service |
| NWS | National Weather Service |
| PDSI | Palmer Drought Severity Index |
| PRCCC | Puerto Rico Climate Change Council |
| RCP | Representative Concentration Pathway |
| SLR | sea level rise |
| SNOTEL | Snow Telemetry (and Snow Course) data |
| SWE | snow water equivalent |
| TAF | thousand acre feet |
| USACE | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |
| USBR | U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |
| USDA | U.S. Department of Agriculture |
| USGS | U.S. Geological Survey |
| WCRP | World Climate Research Programme |
| WGCM | Working Group on Coupled Modeling |