{"id":3010,"date":"2015-05-10T15:54:27","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T19:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2015-05-12T06:29:34","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T10:29:34","slug":"meet-your-climate-specialist-regional-climate-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/2015\/05\/meet-your-climate-specialist-regional-climate-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet your climate specialist: Regional Climate Centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this series on sources of climate and weather information, we’ve looked at the state climatologists and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC–now part of NCEI, the National Centers for Environmental Information) so far. \u00a0In between these two levels of data sources are the regional climate centers, also part of NOAA. \u00a0The map of regional climate centers is shown below. \u00a0Each of the RCCs uses the same NOAA data sets as NCDC and the state climatologists, but they provide unique packages of information on their web sites designed to meet the needs of their regional climate data users. \u00a0I use products from several of them in my work.<\/p>\n

\"rcc<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Southeast Regional Climate Center covers the Southeast region and Puerto Rico. \u00a0Their web site is https:\/\/www.sercc.com<\/a>. \u00a0They have many products including normals for all NWS cooperative observer stations as well as ways to manipulate the data. \u00a0One of my favorite products from SERCC is the Climate Perspectives tool at\u00a0https:\/\/www.sercc.com\/perspectives?user=true<\/a>, which allows you to look for rankings of temperature and precipitation on maps or in text listings. \u00a0This is a very helpful tool to use when reporters call to ask if we are near record-setting temperatures, for example, since it allows you to look at past records and rank them. \u00a0On the map below, May 9 maximum temperatures were ranked to show where the values fell in the historical record for that date and show that many stations in or near the Southeast were in the top twenty for the date and a few areas set new daily records.<\/p>\n

\"max<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The High Plains RCC has summary climate maps which I find useful in looking at patterns of temperature and precipitation around the country. \u00a0Their web site is\u00a0https:\/\/www.hprcc.unl.edu\/<\/a>\u00a0and the climate maps are at\u00a0https:\/\/www.hprcc.unl.edu\/maps\/current\/<\/a>. \u00a0The map below shows the May to date temperature departure for the US, showing the cooler than normal conditions we have seen in the Southeast due to the cloudy and rainy conditions we had at the beginning of the month.<\/p>\n

\"us<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another RCC I often use is the Midwestern Regional Climate Center at\u00a0https:\/\/mcc.sws.uiuc.edu\/<\/a>. \u00a0Their cli-MATE database tool is very useful in looking at station data for individual stations and also allows you to sort through data for occurrences of rainfall over 2 inches for example. \u00a0The database is at\u00a0https:\/\/mrcc.isws.illinois.edu\/CLIMATE\/<\/a>; you need to create an account and log on but access is free.<\/p>\n

All of the RCCs have service climatologists on staff who can help you find data or answer questions about the climate in their regions. \u00a0I encourage you to take advantage of these specialists the next time you need help with weather or climate data, and you are sure to get quick, friendly help.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this series on sources of climate and weather information, we’ve looked at the state climatologists and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC–now part of NCEI, the National Centers for Environmental Information) so far. \u00a0In between these two levels of data sources are the regional climate centers, also part of NOAA. \u00a0The map of regional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":3011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sources-of-weather-and-climate-data","category-tools-for-climate-and-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3010"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3032,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010\/revisions\/3032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}