Sources of weather and climate data
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NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information put out a very interesting article and accompanying video on how their climate and weather data are used in management decisions by businesses and manufacturing plants to minimize economic losses. Of course farmers already do this to help plan farm activities and determine crop varieties to plant, but you…
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Here’s an interesting article from Fivethirtyeight.com about why NOAA and USDA have slightly different plant hardiness zone maps. These maps help gardeners determine what kind of plants are likely to do well in a given location and are based primarily on lowest minimum temperatures. Because of the way they are calculated, the two maps show…
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Here’s an inspiring story about a family of weather observers in Edenton NC who have been serving as cooperative observers for the National Weather Service for the last 120 years! Climatologists depend on help from dedicated volunteers like this family to provide long-term reliable and consistent observations of weather which can show us trends and…
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You may have seen my recent post on the uncertain future of the regional climate centers, which are on the chopping block in the budget currently being promoted by President Trump. If you have not already done so, it’s not too late to sign an online petition to support them. If you are not familiar…
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The Climate History Network is a group of scientists who study past climates and their impact on history. The scientists are from all around the world, although it appears that they started in Europe. They have put together a list of historical climate databases around the world that they use in their work, including many…
Posted in: Sources of weather and climate data -
In the FY 2018 budget submitted to Congress, program funding for the Regional Climate Centers (RCC) was reduced by 82%. With this reduced level of funding the RCCs will not be able to respond to customer phone requests, collect current weather and climate information, and provide an active website that includes value-added climate information and…
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Today is the beginning of the Atlantic Tropical Season. In June, most of our storms, if they form, are likely to come from the Gulf of Mexico or along the East Coast. But we may actually get our first storm of the official season (remember, TS Arlene came and went very quickly in April) from…