The Regional Climate Centers, Applied Climatology, and You: Going Beyond Normals and Records

The Regional Climate Center (RCC) program is a part of the National Climatic Data Center's three-tiered climate services support program, in cooperation with federal partners such as the National Weather Service and State Climate Offices. The six centers in the RCC program engage in the development and maintenance of regional climatic databases, dissemination of information and climate services, and performance of applied climate research for users at the local, state, regional, and national levels.

Examples of projects the Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) has recently completed include the Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) for ingesting and outputting data, a model for monitoring mosquito abundance and control, a study on East Coast Winter Storm climatology, tools for drought monitoring, and an updated atlas of extreme precipitation statistics.

This research presents opportunities for broadcasters to add context to on-air presentations and provides content for Station Scientist reporting. Additionally, the NRCC is looking to create a new climatology portal specifically designed for the broadcast meteorology community, providing easy access to recent data, normals, and records.