Some Northwest and California cities bucked the warming trend and became cooler in the past decade, according to new climate normals from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The new averages are based on temperatures over the past 30 years. The average year-round temperature increased in most places in the U.S., according to NOAA.

A sampling of 40 cities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California found the average temperature increased in 27 of them, decreased in 12 and was unchanged in one, Idaho Falls.

Washington State Climatologist Nick Bond said Thursday he wasn’t surprised some places cooled. Short-term weather patterns and the varied effects of climate change influence temperatures, he said.

“We don’t expect a uniform warming,” he said. “An important message is most places show that the last 30 years were warmer than the previous 30-year bloc, and that’s a sign of overall warming occurring.”

NOAA updates what’s considered “normal” weather in the U.S every 10 years. The new norms are based on temperatures and rainfall recorded at thousands of weather stations between 1991 and 2020. The previous climate normals were based on readings between 1981 and 2010, so two decades overlap.

Climate normals date back to 1900. U.S. temperatures have increased an average of 0.16 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since then, according to NOAA.

The longer view gives a better picture of global warming, Bond said.

“This is a sign that there is a real problem,” he said. “It’s not that the Northwest is going to be uninhabitable. It’s going to be a different place, and we have to mitigate for that and adapt to that.”

The cities with a warmer year-round average temperature include Moses Lake, Klamath Falls, Pocatello and Redding. Cities with a cooler average temperature include Ellensburg, McMinnville, Twin Falls and Susanville.