NOAA NWS OCWWS Climate Services Division develops training related to Climate Services as a part of the NWS Professional Development Series (PDS). The training targets primarily NWS climate services personnel in NWS national, regional and local offices. The objective of this training endeavor is to prepare the NWS field and regional infrastructure for the delivery of local and regional climate services.

Training is now in place or being developed to ensure field staff (1) possess knowledge of the infrastructure for climate data and services, (2) understand climate variability sufficient to apply to local services, (3) understand the basis and methodologies of NWS/National Centers for Environmental Prediction's (NCEP) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Products, (4) know how to interpret and apply CPC products, including downscaling forecasts to sub-regional and local levels, (5) can respond to user requests for historical climate data and information including providing public outreach, and (6) can insure the timely, accurate and consistent collection of climate observations, and associated metadata and understand the broad range of climate data applications within NWS, NOAA, and the external data user community.

The instructional components of the climate training series include a 4.5 day residence training course offered twice a year, website information with interactive self-guided exercises, webcasts (archived expert lectures available on demand), and teletraining sessions. The residence training includes ~20 lectures on climate variability and change, the latest developments in climate analysis and prediction (including CPC operations), and methods for documenting and forecasting local climate fluctuations. The lectures are supported by three on-hands exercises and numerous discussion sessions. The completed webcasts include one lecture on why synopticians should worry about climate, two lectures on Madden-Julian Oscillations, and two lectures on ENSO. The teletraining sessions teach users how to navigate though the NWS/NCEP Climate Prediction Center web site and how to understand the meaning of and basis for NOAA Seasonal Hurricane Outlooks.

All Climate Services training resources with exception of the residence training are available to everyone, not just NWS personnel. Detailed information about the NWS climate services training opportunities and appropriate links to online lessons are available at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/csd/pds/index.html.