As society shifts towards more proactive methods of coping with the impacts of climate extremes, the importance of leveraging existing programs and infrastructure, such as those administered by the U.S. government, has significantly grown.  An example of this is the groundswell of support for the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), which began as an experimental product in 1999 and quickly became the gold standard for identifying and quantifying drought in the United States and its territories.  Originally a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), along with the National Drought Mitigation Center, the number of individuals and agencies contributing to the product has risen in recent years in proportion to the importance of the USDM to decision makers and the public at large.

Drought, like other climate extremes, does not follow geopolitical or programmatic boundaries. Federal climate services providers, such as NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) programs, USDA Climate Hubs, and Department of Interior (DOI) Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs), must therefore work in a coordinated and partnered manner to prioritize service delivery, avoid duplication of efforts, and best serve the public and steward taxpayer resources. 

This session highlights examples of NOAA, USDA, and DOI programs working together on a regional basis to address climate services challenges, using drought as a framing topic. Success stories will be presented where Federal resources were leveraged to deliver drought early warning, impact, and recovery information efficiently and effectively at the landscape level. The challenges of such partnered efforts will also be addressed, and opportunities and solutions for the next decade of Federal climate services program activities articulated.

S2S outlooks are becoming some of the most sought after forecasts by decision-makers, while the S2S time scale continues to be the most challenging to forecast. With  incremental improvements being made in the field of S2S forecasting research, applying this research into useful and useable products for stakeholders is still emerging. This topic would encourage presentations by those who are developing decision-support tools using S2S forecasts and outlooks. It could also be an opportunity to have an open forum on how to improve communication of uncertainty with current forecasts, while still making them useful.

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is preparing to produce a new set of normals for the United States for the 1991-2020 period. Many normals will be generated in a similar manner to the most recent 1981-2010 cycle. NCEI seeks input from the user community regarding their suggestions for improving current products and methods of access. Requirements for potential new products of greater utility to user communities will also be collected.

Climatology and meteorology are data-driven disciplines, and advancements in these fields are influenced by the quality and accessibility of data and information. Climate data and tools are also valuable instruments for communication between climate scientists and decision makers. This session provides a forum for climate data producers and tool developers to showcase their latest and greatest climate tools to AMS attendees. We welcome submissions of web-based interfaces for climate datasets and monitoring networks, data analysis and visualization tools, and other novel climate tools. Presenters will exhibit their web-based tools on laptops or tablets at stations set within a poster session environment to allow customized demonstration of their tools to attendees.

The economic impacts of hydrologic extremes (such as droughts or floods) are extensive and difficult to capture, however products such as the NCEI Billion dollar disasters report and map have greatly improved our ability to assess these damages and to help society appreciate the magnitude of these impacts by putting a dollar value on them. The human health impacts of hydrologic extremes are also extensive and difficult to capture, and we know that health maintenance is essential to a thriving society, yet there is no commensurate systemic assessment of the health impacts of hydrologic extremes. In this session, speakers should examine the myriad health impacts of these extremes--primarily droughts and floods--and examine what this means at a personal level. From this session, we hope to inspire a community effort to work toward understanding the health disaster of hydrologic extremes. One guiding question, to consider is: how do different groups communicate and manage public health risks related to flood and drought? This session will also put a human face on hydrologic extremes by also inviting practitioners to speak to their lived experiences in coping with recent disasters.

The economic impacts of hydrologic extremes (such as droughts or floods) are extensive and difficult to capture, however products such as the NCEI Billion dollar disasters report and map have greatly improved our ability to assess these damages and to help society appreciate the magnitude of these impacts by putting a dollar value on them. The human health impacts of hydrologic extremes are also extensive and difficult to capture, and we know that health maintenance is essential to a thriving society, yet there is no commensurate systemic assessment of the health impacts of hydrologic extremes. In this session, speakers should examine the myriad health impacts of these extremes--primarily droughts and floods--and examine what this means at a personal level. From this session, we hope to inspire a community effort to work toward understanding the health disaster of hydrologic extremes. One guiding question, to consider is: how do different groups communicate and manage public health risks related to flood and drought? This session will also put a human face on hydrologic extremes by also inviting practitioners to speak to their lived experiences in coping with recent disasters.

State Climatologists are the recognized subject matter experts on the climate for their respective states. They also develop a deep understanding of the requirements for climate services at the state, county and local levels through their extensive networks of stakeholders and customers. They direct State Climate Offices in executing effective programs to provide individual customer support, developing applied climatology products, monitoring and coordinating on climate conditions throughout the state and responding to extreme events, and in conducting education and outreach.  This makes the State Climatologist a critical part of the National Climate Services Partnership, which provides a continuum of climate products and services from the Federal, to the Regional, to the State and local levels.

This session provides an overview of several diverse State Climate Offices and how they leverage Regional Climate Centers and Federal Partners to provide effective climate services at the state and local levels. 

It also describes the role of the Regional Climate Centers and how they provide critical services to facilitate the work of the State Climate Offices.  Specifically, the RCCs provide regional and sector-specific data products and services. They also offer robust computer-based infrastructure for providing climate information and web services.

Finally, it describes the role of the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) as the national partner.  NCEI is responsible for the archive, quality control, dissemination, monitoring, and description of global and nationally observed climate data. These data are the source for local, regional, national, and global climate descriptors and summaries produced by NCEI.