The Southwest has grown hotter and drier during the past decade, and new climate data from the federal government shows these changes have been dramatic, shifting the long-term averages that represent the region’s “normal.” The country’s updated climate “normals” were released Tuesday by the National Centers for Environmental Information, encompassing weather data for the 30-year period from 1991 through 2020. The federal government releases these long-term averages every 10 years as an up-to-date benchmark for comparing with the weather on a daily basis. Compared with the 30 years that ended in 2010, the new averages show temperatures have gotten warmer nearly everywhere in the country. But the warming has been most pronounced in the Southwest, with average temperatures generally rising between 0.5 degrees F and 1 degree F, an increase that federal meteorologists said clearly reflects the influence of global warming.